Ingo Giezendanner’s new book asks: What are the similarities are between books and trees?

Ingo Giezendanner, aka GRRRR!, has taken inspiration from the centenary of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich for his new book. Titled Bücherwald, the 496-page publication documents the artist’s trip from Zurich to Japan on the train travelling through Siberia and Japan. The brief Ingo set himself was “What are the similarities between books and trees?” Taking the volumes in the vast book stacks at the library as his starting point, records his adventure in his monochrome and obsessively detailed drawings. Presented without any text, Ingo’s eye for detail and precise linework creates a rich and suggestive experience, where the reader has to decode images and maps to work out the author is.

Since 1998, Zurich-based Ingo has been documenting the world in his inimitable style, always working with pen on paper. This new volume, published by Nieves, ties into his ongoing body of work published at GRRRR.net that is a growing visual archive of every place that he has visited.