This is a book that lives and breathes its material: wool. The matte photography, the soft, uncoated paper, the frayed edge and the cover made from paper containing wool fibres all contribute to making this an artefact both about and made from wool. The interior contains a highly readable quantity of text, as well as photography that strangely enough is greyed, but nevertheless emerges beautifully from the ink. The fraying of the top and bottom edges differs from that on the fore edge, which is less frayed to allow easy leafing through the book. This is a book that perfectly brings together content, production and design.
All design and production choices result – particularly on pages where sheep are depicted – in phenomenal spreads; perhaps Formafantasma. Oltre Terra is even more of an ode to sheep than an ode to wool. As in Formafantasma. Cambio, one of the Best Dutch Book Designs of 2020 and likewise an exhibition catalogue by research/designer duo Formafantasma, here too the right balance has been found between similarity and difference. On the one hand, the two books are clearly related in their approach to the material and the object; on the other, this book’s specific material leads the design concept to such an extent that Oltre Terra stands proud by itself.