In September, Karlsruhe-based book artist Veronika Schäpers was honored with the State Prize for Outstanding Design “Gestaltung Kunst Handwerk 2026”. At first glance, one might wonder: what does this have to do with IT security research and the KASTEL Security Research Labs?

This is precisely where cryptography comes into play.

Veronika Schäpers’ book projects are always characterized by their literary context. For one of her artistic projects, she invested years of intensive preparatory work but was unable to obtain permission to print the original text on which it was based. In order to realize her artwork nonetheless, she wanted to edit the text in such a way that the result would be readable without infringing on copyright.

She decided to tackle this challenge with professional support and turned to Prof. Jörn Müller-Quade, spokesperson of the KASTEL Security Research Labs. Together with Dr. Jeremias Mechler, head of the Quantification of Security research group, the text underwent an extensive cryptographic process which converted the Japanese original into an entirely new form. By using a binary key, a long sequence of individual terms was created—each of them comprehensible on its own, but with no connection to one another. The words were taken from a dictionary containing 2^11 = 2,048 entries, which also explains the book’s title.

The resulting cryptographically generated word sequences were then typeset in a monospaced font and printed. The book was supplemented by numerous collages and color tones, all of which are described in the original text.

The project is an impressive example of how art, literature, and cryptography can inspire and complement one another. In this way, IT security research became a creative tool for a new artistic approach.

Learn more about the book project