Florian Graf. School Models

The documentation of Florian Graf’s witty playground sculptures for a Zurich primary school playfully explores the question of the extent to which a book can reflect or even imitate such objects. Graf arranged white limestone models of the three school buildings on green and salmon pink terrazzo blocks, and the book – with its glossy, sharply defined hardcover, using the same three colours – instantly captures the tone and attitude of children: simple, direct and loud. The endpapers then directly reproduce the colours of the terrazzo materials, so that even the white book block can be seen to chromatically echo the limestone sculptures. The front and back covers have a prominently protruding edge, the insides of which feature the contents along all four edges that remain conveniently visible when leafing through the book. The text sections are presented bilingually – German in green and English in salmon pink – with occasional page headings along the edge aligning with the ever-visible contents information. Certain four-colour picture essays detailing, for example, the manufacture, installation and use of the sculptures could perhaps have been more rigorously edited, but they do a good job of conveying the playful theme and wit of the artworks. The book is as idiosyncratic as the sculptures themselves.

Edotor
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Authors
Various

Design
A Language – Martin Stoecklin, Melina Wilson, Zürich (CH)

Printing
DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Altenburg (DE)

Publisher
Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich (CH)

ISBN
978-3-03942-250-0