THE ANTI-KINDLE: THE TREE OF CODES

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Isabella Cecconi

No this is not photography. This is visual art. No neither it is. This is art that meets literature that meets design. Or maybe better, this is something that happened to me the other day. I bought another book.

Yes dear, the answer is No! Kindle, you’ll never get me.

I love book, I love paper, I love the smell new  books have when you open them the very first time, the cracking sound of the first page that breaks the glue of the paperback. I love the fact that something has been printed, that somebody has been working on it. I love the idea I’ve bought a new “window” from where I can see a new story, new images, new adventures. I adore when I’m in bed, reading, I feel the book heavy for my arms. It’s just one of those beautiful sensation I’ll never have enough.  I love small bookshops, those where you talk and ask for some book advice. Real booksellers always read a lot and usually get the idea of your temporary mood. The book I’m going to write about it’ s Jonathan Safran Foer’s Code of Trees. Foer, unlike his previous novels (which are all fantastic)  have come up with this process of erasing words from “Street of Crocodiles”, the book by Bruno Schulz in order to carve out a new story. Tree of Codes is a small response to a great book. It is a story in its own, but it is not exactly a work of fiction, or even a book. Tree of Codes is an artwork, in the form of a book. Published by Visual Editions as a sculptural object, it is  to be read with concentration.

Why? Because the book is difficult to read. It’s physically difficult as it involves blacked-out passages. The format slows the eye but it’s brief and can be read in half an hour. The result is a spare, haunting story that appears to hang in the negative space on the page. Too pretentious? Possibly.. but it is also very, very cool.

http://www.visual-editions.com/