Novel ideas

How does a brand-new publishing company working from a tiny office off the Edgware Road manage to land a celebrated literary prodigy for their second release? By thinking outside of the box – which according to the experimental approach of Visual Editions might mean reinventing the very role of the box itself.

Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen launched Visual Editions just 18 months ago, and debuted with a vibrant new rendering of the 18th century classic by Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy. Throughout, visual devices playfully reinforce the narrative, so for example a shut door in the text is evoked through a folded page. The story emerges not just through words printed on paper, but also through graphics, typography, die cuts, perforations, over-printing and blank pages.

“The idea for Visual Editions came from our joint love of books and a mischievous desire to do things differently,” says Anna. “We want to give people an unexpected experience, and through that open doors into how the visual can bring about a dynamic, engaging and surprising storytelling experience.”

Next to hit the shelves is Tree of Codes, a haunting new story by the celebrated young American Jonathan Safran Foer. Among a host of other prizes, the writer’s first title Everything is Illuminated won the Guardian First Book Award and was made into a Hollywood film starring Elijah Wood.

Inspired to exhume a new story from an existing text, in Tree of Codes the author took Bruno Schultz’s The Street of Crocodiles and used it as a canvas, cutting into and out of the pages to arrive at an original story told in his own voice.

“What he’s done is almost sculpting poetically into an old book,” explains Britt about the imaginatively die-cut tome. “And it looks amazing, it looks ridiculous, as in it shouldn’t be done, it shouldn’t be possible – but it is.”

And speaking of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, remember that proverbial box? Visual Editions’ first release of 2011 will be a reprinting of Marc Saporta's Composition No 1, first published in 1962. “It’s the first-ever book in a box,” grins Anna. “It’s got loose papers in it; there are no page numbers so you read it in any order you want.”

This type of adventurous and inventive approach might at first appear a bit risky in the current economic climate, but Britt says in fact it provides the perfect opportunity to chuck out the rulebook. “If you look back at times of recession, it’s when money’s tightest that creativity’s greatest.”

Likewise, the pair are undaunted to be entering the publishing industry when it is arguably at its lowest ebb. “Publishing right now – in response to the recession but also to digital pressures – is really paralysed and in a state of fear,” Anna observes. “I hope and think that we’re kind of coming from left field and going, ‘Hang on a second! You don’t have to do it that way.’ It doesn’t have to be so grim; it really doesn’t have to be so dull.”

If anything, digital pressures are a good omen according to the spirited philosophy of Visual Editions. The arrival of Amazon’s mighty e-reader, the Kindle, in the UK last summer isn’t perceived as a threat but an opportunity. “The 3-for-2 holiday reads, those are great for Kindles,” says Anna. “But what we’re concerned about is how people read in a visually engaging way.”

The holiday bestseller is an example of the kind of printed matter that might just disappear from the shelves of Tesco in coming months and years according to Britt. “You’re not buying that to touch, to feel, to admire. You buy that for a quick, quite instant consumption of storytelling,” she says. The spread of on-screen reading simply forces the question of what deserves to be printed. “It almost makes more beautiful books as a result. Longer term, you’re going to get more beautiful books coming out of what’s happening with digital developments, not less.”

Britt and Anna’s attention to the way things look and the experience that engenders extends beyond the work of the company. Anna came to London from LA 15 years ago to study at LSE, since then she’s been writing about, working in and teaching graphic design, first at Central Saint Martins and now at London College of Communication. Britt, who is Danish, has spent the last nine years with the advertising agency Mother, where she continues to work four days a week as a strategist.

The pair met when their children were in school at Kids Unlimited in Holland Park. “We met basically through the nursery,” says Britt. “We bonded over bright colours and disorganisation.” Their first conversation at the school gates six years ago centred on the fact that they were both wearing the same bright pink scarf from American Apparel. They became fast friends before deciding to go into business together. “We went for dim sum and had one of those ‘wouldn’t it be great if…’ conversations. And that’s where it started,” says Anna.

So from a few dumplings and steamed buns, a whole new way of viewing, presenting and experiencing the world has emerged. “We’ve been talking a lot about the idea that these are books as objects, but almost going beyond that idea and thinking of them as books as experiences which envelop all the senses,” Anna says. “The idea always at the core was for these books to be read, not to be on display.” Britt too is keen to liberate reading from confined, boxy spaces. “We’re not producing books to have in glass cabinets,” she laughs. “They still need to be loved and lived.” END

Featuring book design by Sarah de Bondt and cover design by Jon Gray, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes is published by Visual Editions Nov 2 in paperback, £25. www.visual-editions.com

Members Comments

• Comment by: michaelmorland 09 November 2010 - 10:51

  Well how refreshing! Having been "packaged" by the accepted publishing rules my first venture "democracy needs YOU" I sure would benefit from such and inspirational outlook. My writing format, 2 more underway, is already "original" ......may be theres hope. Well done and we must speak in the not to distant future!
  Michael Morland

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