“The present volume starts from an interrogation on the status,

functions and contemporary practices of the image,

understood in the broad sense. More precisely, it focuses on

the increasingly massive presence in our daily lives

of images without qualities, whether vernacular or artistic.”

Tania Vladova, L'image sans qualités, editorial.

“The preciousness of the book also lies inancestral art

of sharing, it remains (in) a human chain (from the graphic

designer’s conception through the silkscreen printing

workshop to the readers). The important thing is elsewhere:

that graphic design is and remains a dangerous,

“compromising” tool, a space for projections, dotted lines

of questioning, a zone of confirmation of individuality(ies).”

Yann Owens

A book-game that allows to create a whimsical

pocket-sized garden. Unfold the book,

arrange and rearrange the die cut cards

on the colored pages: you have 25 recognizable

fruits and vegetables at the mercy of your imagination.

This paper garden will provide many surprises!

“Threatened, revered, today’s book questions its “matter”.

For Isabelle Caplain and Marion Caron, a book poses itself

and is leafed through as a constant space of irresolutions,

of indeterminations. This book closes, but what it contains,

escapes. This editorial object traps the past, lets it slide

across the pages, it breaks on the “greys” ¹ of nostalgia,

“blocks” ² of decisions and their “blanks” ³ of indecisions ⁴.

1 “Contrast value between the black typeface and the white

page. The colour of a design text, by extension, its contrast

with the white page. We speak of the typographic grey of

a text”, Damien and Claire Gautier, Manuel Mise

en page(s), etc., Pyramyd, 2009.

2 “Compositional space within the page. It is the surface

of the page minus the margins”. As defined by

Damien and Claire Gautier, op.cit.

3 “Margin located at the top or bottom of the page”.

As defined by Damien and Claire Gautier, op.cit.

4 It develops an elusive aspect, like Virginia Woolf ’s
“The Waves” (1931).

Each book tells a story, an exchange between several

individuals, it is forged by several hands. From the client

(publisher, artist, institution, etc.) to the graphic designer,

from the graphic designer to the printer, then from

the printer to the reader, the graphic chain is revealed.

The beginnings of the object take shape thanks to

the dialogue between the graphic designer and his client,

whether he is an author, artist or publisher. Then comes

its virtual birth and its existence in the real world.

Within the editorial chain of the book, each one plays

a precise role, in particular the printer who contributes

to the conception of the book as well as to

the transposition of the mediums: from screen to ink.

“What is the task of the translator? It is not to adapt

the content of a work to new readers, those who do not

understand the original language, because the work itself

(the original) is not addressed to readers. It is to discharge

a debt. Restoring the meaning of the work is not enough.

The language must be exhibited in its magical, mysterious

purity. It is not a transposition into another language,

it is a creation.” Walter Benjamin, The Task

of the Translator, in Œuvres I, Éditions Folio-

Gallimard, Paris, 2000, p. 255.

“My creative process begins with emptiness:

a mental space and a physical availability that I maintain

in order to welcome what my alert, sensitive

and intuitive body captures from my environment.

The moment of seizing extracts (materials, objects, words...)

can be brief and is followed by a longer period

of “maceration”. A slow decantation out of its context

that aims to reveal the strength of what has been

collected. Diverted, isolated and treated with respect,

the materials can be combined according to

their similarities or their opposites. A freedom is left to things

that I do not seek to domesticate or appropriate fully.

Thus, encounters become more obvious.

A place is left for the unforeseen as proposals

expressed by the material itself.” Anna Voreux