With its fluorescent orange cover and quasi-academic title printed in sharp typography, this book makes a striking statement. The images in the interior are made up of a collection of forty objects collected by photographer Joel Harder in a piece of woodland in the Ardèche region and placed under an A4 format scanner. The publication as a whole gives off a feel of police photos and voyeurism; associations reinforced by the title, which emphasises that the objects were found in a piece of woodland used by homosexual men for secret assignations. The reader is brought up very close to the remnants of these meetings, such as torn condom wrappers and empty cigarette packs. The associative way in which the images have been ordered cause one double-take after another – what is that wooden sculpture doing there? –allowing us as viewers to construct our own narratives. At the same time, the book – like its title – has a sense of almost academic objectivity. Which is then deliciously undermined by the clichéd postcard of the area, enclosed with the publication in a plastic bag and provided with a woodland scent by perfumer Anne Flipo. All of these elements combine to create an intriguing, beautifully executed project, the typography and design of which fully support the content.
Joël Harder
A Sensitive Study of the ST. Privat’s Disappearing Gay Cruising Scene in the Riparian Forest
Une collection de 40 objets dénichés dans les bois/A collection of 40 objects unearthed in the woods
Edition: 2022
Date of publication: 2022
Language: Français, English
Translator: Florence Campbell
Final editor: Joël Harder, Alyson Sillon, Floor Koomen
Image editor: Alyson Sillon
Photographer: Joël Harder
Artist: Joël Harder
Publisher: Alyson Sillon (Gerrit Rietveld Academie), Amsterdam collab Joël Harder (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Parijs (FR)) (self-published), Amsterdam
Available through: Bookshop, webshop
Graphic designer: Alyson Sillon (Amsterdam)
Printer: Gerrit Rietveld Academie (digitally printed by Alyson Sillon), Amsterdam
Binder: Gerrit Rietveld Academie (bound by Alyson Sillon and Joël Harder), Amsterdam
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 205 x 284 x 4 mm
Number of pages: 52
Print run: 50
Price: € 15
Font and foundry: Ortica (Collletttivo), Playfair Display (Google Fonts)
Binding style: Stapled
Paper for interior (grammage): 100gsm BIO TOP 3®, Papyrus
Material cover (grammage): 250gsm Bindakote Ice White, Papyrus
Material slip case (grammage): 100gsm Day-glo fluorescent orange, Igepa
Special features: Dust jacket is stapled integrally with the book block, cover and interior digitally printed, includes a scented postcard as an inlay