42 is a publishing project curated by Roxy(Dimeihui) Zhang. Titled “42“, the project draws inspiration from Douglas Adams’ novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, where 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Numbers serve as a universal language, bridging gaps in understanding across cultures.

In this project, I aim to discuss the importance of personal narratives and the significance of everyday life. Postcards serve as a kind of monument, acting as a medium to help people record the places they’ve been, what they’ve done and their feelings at the time. Although we often consider these moments fleeting and trivial, these snippets of daily life are, in fact, essential components of our personal experiences and the history of human society.

In the publication there is a set of postcards, with a total of 42 cards excluding the cover and the end page. They capture 42 stories narrated by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences. The items depicted in the images represent special memories of these storytellers, now collected in this drawer-like slide box, waiting to be opened, sent out, and exchanged for these stories by the next person. The initial inspiration for this project came from flea markets—a place where old objects are given new life, sold, and imbued with new value, and where stories are passed on to create new ones. After the publication is completed, the curator will randomly send these postcards from Glasgow to the participants, thereby completing some correspondence.