Marjan Teeuwen. Destroyed House

Book coverMarjan Teeuwen. Destroyed House
Book coverMarjan Teeuwen. Destroyed House
Book coverMarjan Teeuwen. Destroyed House
Book coverMarjan Teeuwen. Destroyed House

If there was one book among this year’s submissions that was so obviously right for binding with what is known as an open spine, it was surely this carefully considered volume about artist Marjan Teeuwen’s imposing photographic series Destroyed House. Teeuwen strips and demolishes houses and then uses the material thus acquired to create new spatial sculptures, which she then photographs. As a spectator, you find yourself deprived of almost any sense of proportion. Teeuwen’s modus operandi returns in the design and production of the book: apart from the open spine, the book block has not been trimmed on all sides, the effect of which is that the fore-edge is uneven, and even the text pages – on the horror vacui principle – are typographically completely bricked up.

 

The cover image is just a little too illustrative and not in harmony with the interior of the book. We were also unable to find a truly convincing argument for using so many different kinds of paper, unless it was that it facilitated imitation of different sorts of building material. On the other hand these various papers are fantastically well glued together – quite an achievement with such disparate material. And finally the whole thing is so unbelievably well lithographed that the already pin-sharp images appear almost three-dimensional. As if you could walk straight inside it.

 

Edition: 2017
Language: English, Dutch, translated by Leo Reijnen, Auke van den Berg
Final editor: Els Brinkman
Publisher: Valiz, Amsterdam
Graphic designer: Haller Brun, Amsterdam, photographs by Marjan Teeuwen
Lithographer: Wilco Art Books, Amersfoort (Mariska Bijl)
Printer: Bariet Ten Brink, Meppel
Binder: Wilco Art Books, Amersfoort
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 240 x 330 x 15
Number of pages: 160 p.
Print run: 1,400
Price: € 29.50
ISBN: 978 94 92095 37 4
Font and foundry: Arial (Monotype)
Binding style: sewn soft cover with front and back cover of four pages sewn in, glued-off spine
Material: 150gsm Munken Polar Rough (Antalis), 120gsm BIO TOP 3 (Antalis), 115gsm Cocoon Silk (Antalis), 140gsm PlanoPlus (Papyrus), 115gsm Arctic Volume Highwhite (Antalis), 120gsm Arcoprint Milk 1.5 (Fedrigoni) (interior), 280gsm Invercote G (Antalis) (cover), 120gsm Munken Polar Rough (Antalis) (dust jacket matt laminated on the inside)