The Forest

A lyrical book about the adventures of life, The Forest is also a magnificent visual work, both painterly and a technical feat of paper engineering.  Here, sensory experience and the textures of the material world are rendered through die-cuts, embossing, cutouts, and two gatefolds. Constructed in the tradition of Japanese binding, the book is wrapped in translucent velum that gives the lush cover illustration the aura of a mist-enveloped forest early in the morning. Less a book than a tactile expedition into the existential wilderness, the journey unfolds across time and space, in “an enormous, ancient forest that has not yet been fully explored.” A beautifully considered work.

Written by Riccardo Bozzi, who is a journalist for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera since 1990. Illustrations by Violeta Lópiz and Valerio Vidall.  Lópiz is an award-winning Berlin-based illustrator from Ibiza. She has participated in exhibitions in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, USA, Japan, Korea and more. El Cultural, the supplement of El Mundo, considers her one of the top ten names of contemporary Spanish illustration.  Her work can be found in bookstores, streets, fairs, newspapers, and the thousands of notebooks that she leaves scattered around.  Vidali is an Italian illustrator of children’s books also based in Berlin. He enjoys botanical gardens and spends his spare time building kites that rarely fly. His picture books have been translated into over a dozen languages, and have received several international awards.

A New York Times best illustrated Children’s Book Award Winner, 2o18

Paperback