Human Territoriality
A large-format volume of photographs with a silver-grey hardcover and a little over 100 pages is compelling for the way it combines image and text in an unusual but very systematic design. The images are mostly abstract colour photographs of former border areas around the world that Swiss photographer Roger Eberhard has visited. Each is placed individually to left or right on the double page, matching the width of the type area. The opposite page contains minimal information on the localities and countries, the year and page number – scattered on the page but always adjusted to the margins of the type area or the format of the photo – as well as brief comments by Eberhard at the bottom. In addition to creating an excellent navigation system, it also has the effect of making the pages of text appear almost like cartographic arrangements. The space opened up by the book page therefore engages in correspondence with the photographed border areas, both appearing similarly empty and leaving lots of room for the imagination. The black-and-white picture index presented at the end on 15 pages of uncoated grey paper combines each photo with a corresponding excerpt from a map.
