The book High Resolution and exhibition Paintbox were both conceived to accompany the award of the Cobra Kunstprijs Amstelveen 2007 to Johannes Schwartz. In the jury’s report (www.cobraprijsamstelveen.nl) we read that the book is based on photos of large numbers of painter’s palettes from China, a fact which may be regarded as a wink in the direction of both Cobra’s easel painting and the contemporary Chinese art then on exhibition in the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen.
What is unusual about the book, which was designed by Experimental Jetset, is that it consists of no more than twenty thin sheets of paper, printed in full colour, held together with two centrally sited staples, and with a crease running through the line of the staples in the middle. Fold the book along the crease and what you have is an eighty-page stapled brochure. To fold or not to fold? Book or no book? Heated discussions amongst the panel ensued: some resisted, one compared it with minimal music, but ultimately the majority liked an entry that so simply yet so inspiringly seeks out the bounds of book design.