[2] The company was launched after Clark's 2014 experience employed at a smartphone factory in Dongguan, China and reading René Daumal’s allegorical adventure novel Mount Analogue, which he saw as “the anti-iPhone.” From their sending each other more and more books the next few years, the concept of Isolarii developed.

[3] In November 2020, Isolarii published F Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry, which emerged as a symbol for anti-government protests in Russia.

It was adapted into a podcast episode for This American Life[6] and, on March 3, 2023, was cited by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when announcing changes to Germany's military support for Ukraine.

As an afterword, photographer Nan Goldin officiated a marriage between artists Nikita Kadan and Anti Gonna.

[7] Dominick Ammirati wrote in Artforum that “the press has succeeded at imbuing the book form with the psychophysical qualities of a mala, a rosary, kombolói, a smartphone—objects that you pick up and feel almost anxious letting go of.”[2] Isolarii has been described by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist as an “ingenious book club.”[8] In 2023, Isolarii faced criticism from former Fox News correspondent Tucker Carlson.