Batia Suter – Parallel Encyclopedia #2

Book coverBatia Suter – Parallel Encyclopedia #2
Book coverBatia Suter – Parallel Encyclopedia #2
Book coverBatia Suter – Parallel Encyclopedia #2
Book coverBatia Suter – Parallel Encyclopedia #2

This is volume two of Batia Suter’s monumental pictorial investigation, the first volume of which is now a collector’s item.

 

Not everyone on the panel saw it straight away, but one passionate plea eventually convinced everyone. The encyclopedic compilation of images reveals a world of unexpected connections. The entire project stands or falls by the placing and coherence of the pictures, so that its graphic design is a vital ingredient of the project. The seemingly endless succession of images nowhere seems coincidental or dull and the tension is maintained through the entire 586 pages of the book. Great care has also been invested in selecting the occasional injections of colour. Having looked at the book one would have wished to see the associated installation. The visual spectacle is tremendously seductive, though the choice of typeface is curious.

 

A book like this can only be made thanks to the computer, but it is actually an anti-computer book. In our digital era it is a remarkable statement to bring out such a large volume of images in this way. The panel were full of praise for the fact that here the book has been used precisely in its role as a meaningful medium. The publisher runs a considerable risk in respect of the copyrights. Here the approach has been uncompromising and clearly the leap in the dark is deliberate. There’s no question of substantive lithography but sometimes, the panel thought, exaggeration is justified if it heightens the effect. One or two panel members thought the book could have been more raw. The hard case was liked but its green metallic paper was felt to be possibly a little too kitsch. For the rest there is nothing in this powerful book that could be described as coincidental.

Edition: 2016
Language: English
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam
Graphic designer: Batia Suter, Roger Willems, Amsterdam
Lithographer: Batia Suter, Amsterdam
Printer: Wilco Boeken en Tijdschriften, Amersfoort (printed in FM screen with extra pigmented ink), print management by Johan Holterman, Nijmegen
Binder: Wilco Boeken en Tijdschriften, Amersfoort
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 210 x 280 x 37
Number of pages: 592 p.
Print run: 1,800
Price: € 60
ISBN: 978 94 91843 76 1
Font and foundry: Larish Alte (RP Digital Type Foundry)
Binding style: sewn hardback with a flat spine
Material: 90gsm BIO TOP 3 (interior), 145gsm Malmero Cendre (endpapers), 125gsm Wibalin Astra 4110 Nacrea over 2.5 mm grey board (binding, completely printed in offset)