Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes

In Mess, Keri Smith, creator of Wreck This Journal, asks readers to explore what it feels like to throw themselves off balance — on purpose.

Smith dares readers to drop some kind of coloured liquid (ink, tea, coffee) onto a page from a good height (at least five feet); draw in the dark (or with eyes closed); creatively misspell words; paint a picture in a water-based medium (pen, marker, watercolour, etc) and leave it out during a rain or snowstorm; and bury this book, then dig it up.

This book is unlike any other you’ve encountered. Mess encourages readers to use accidents and mistakes to venture into territory where they would not normally go and thus to open themselves up to the possibility of creating something new and unexpected.