Jonathan Safran Foer's book, Tree of Codes

Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, Tree of Codes, pushes the limits of what a book can be. I love the sheer audacity of it.

He constructed it by taking his favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, and cutting out words to form a completely new story.

It’s not only a beautiful creation, it was a puzzle that had to be solved. The world needs more creativity like this.

Close-up shot of the book which has words cut out of each page

The cover of the book which has a lot of black dots on a white background, with the title of the book and the author's name

Another photo of the book pages showing sentences cut out of the pages

Comments

http://www.bellafaithdesign.com/ bellafaith

Wow! That is amazing – true creativity!!
http://twitter.com/jonfriskicsucf Jon Friskics

It’s like a modern-day Oulipo! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Thousand_Billion_Poems
http://twitter.com/mark87dotcom Mark Bubel

I’m going to have to buy this book now. I loved Everything is Illuminated!
Samjoseph Desuza

Innovative. Loved it.
http://africanmangosreview.com
Connie

I think you should read “Street of Crocodiles” before reading this work first.
Bruno Schulz was one of the most creative polish writers/painters, murdered by the SS
- http://carsonified.com Ryan Carson
  
  Wow, really? Thanks for letting us know. I wasn’t aware of that.
- http://carsonified.com Ryan Carson
  
  Wow, really? Thanks for letting us know. I wasn’t aware of that.
David Roberts

This is not a new idea, Tom Phillips took a Victorian novel and made it into a new book (The Humument) buy removing and highlighting words and it is beautiful. You can see a binding I made for it here http://www.flickr.com/photos/24695092@N07/5109766427/. There is also an app for the Humument http://www.humument.com/
- David
  
  I instantly thought of the Humument as well. Tree of Codes will go on my shelf right next to it.
http://www.mojowebdesign.com.au/ Damian

Brilliance. Would’ve taken so much time, time we all have if we make it exist! Guess you gotta have the passion.
http://creativehyperbole.com kdwilliams

Nice!

Comments