Donald Weber – War Sand

Book coverDonald Weber – War Sand
Book coverDonald Weber – War Sand
Book coverDonald Weber – War Sand
Book coverDonald Weber – War Sand

The panel were unanimous in selecting this many-levelled book, whose subject matter has been literally approached from many angles but which has still been designed with great restraint. This is a book over which time has been taken: time for the superb photographs of the Normandy coast, for example, for the microscopic examination of the granular quality of the sand, and for placing all this in a coherent historical context. Each element is given its own paper stock which again has relevance. An appropriate Otastar style of binding was chosen, along with a slightly thin cover in which the debossed figures of soldiers from a training manual might have been given slightly more weight – but that is truly a minor detail.

 

The seed from which the original idea for this book grew was an anecdote told by photographer Donald Weber’s grandfather, who in 1944 as a Canadian soldier in the Allied army took part in the D-Day landings. The story itself has ended up at the end of the book, illustrated with photos of touchingly innocent-looking scenes created with toy soldiers. And such a very carefully considered work would not be complete without an index and a map. Literally every detail must have been thought through at least three times – and despite all this, the book remains alive and natural organic. Impressive.

 

Edition: 2017
Language: English
Publisher: Polygon, Amsterdam
Designer: Heijdens Karwei, Amsterdam (Teun van der Heijden)
Lithographer: Colour & Books, Apeldoorn (Sebastiaan Hanekroot)
Printer: Grafiplaza / MullerVisual, Mijdrecht, print management by FINE BOOKS, Weesp (Jos Morree)
Binder: Hexspoor, Boxtel
Dimensions: 195 × 290 x 23
Amount of pages: 372 p.
Number of copies: 700
Price: € 69
ISBN: 978 0 9959377 0 3
Font and foundry: Px Grotesk (Optimo Type Foundry), Miller (Font Bureau)
Binding style: sewn Otastar
Material: 150gsm Magno Volume (Igepa), 90gsm Magno Gloss (Igepa), 70gsm Plano Plus (Papyrus), 80gsm RecyStar Color Hellrosa, Chamois (Papyrus), 120gsm Pop'Set Spring Green (Antalis), 140gsm Tintoretto Gesso (Fedrigoni) (interior), 300gsm Invercote G (Igepa) (cover), 280gsm Kraftliner (Koninklijke Moorman Karton) (dust jacket with blind debossing by KuiperDonse, Utrecht)