Book: 'Tree of Codes' by Jonathan Safran Foer

Die-cutting a few pages of the magazine for our Guest Editors issue in 2008 (W*115) was hard enough, so we pity the poor printer who took on Tree of Codes - a new tome from American writer Jonathan Safran Foer and Visual Editions. To construct his lyrical tale, Safran Foer literally sliced out chunks of text from his favourite novel, The Street of Crocodiles, by Polish author Bruno Schulz, creating a delicate and sculptural work of art that required a different die-cut on every page.

Visual Editions and the book's designer, Sara De Bondt Studio, faced rejection after rejection from printers - all of whom said it simply couldn't be done - until they stumbled upon Belgian-based Die Keure, who found a way to make the impossible possible. And after months of writing, cutting and proto-typing, Safran Foer's enigmatic story was finally born.

Tree of Codes' multi-layered narrative explores 'an enormous last day of life'. Told from the perspective of a boy coming to terms with the death of a parent, it's a haunting story, full of intense imagery. 'My father would walk along like a gardener of nothingness outside of the surface of life,' he tells us. 'He would scatter into fragments.'

'Visual writing' might be at the core of new publishing house, Visual Editions, but it doesn't let its devices become gimmicky or extraneous. In Tree of Codes, the die-cuts are key to the tale. The powerful voice that Safran Foer has exhumed from Schulz's text is made all the poignant by the gaps in between words, which have an extraordinary resonance. They give each phrase space to breath.

Safran Foer first considered using dictionaries, encyclopedias and even his own works to construct his story. 'But any of those options would have merely spoken to the process,' he says. 'I was in search of a text whose erasure would somehow be a continuation of its creation.'

Book cover and binding — The book was designed by Sara De Bondt studio, with cover designed by Jon Gray

Authors name on front cover — Safran Foer took The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schultz as his starting point

Cut up texts — To create his haunting tale, he literally sliced out chunks of text from Schultz's story

His sculptural work of art required a different die-cut on every page

This feat was undertaken by Belgian printer, Die Keure

After months of writing, cutting and proto-typing, Safran Foer's enigmatic story was finally born

Closeup of script — Written from the perspective of a boy coming to terms with the death of a parent, it is an intense tale, full of complex imagery

Tree of code — The die-cutting is no gimmick. The powerful voice that Safran Foer has exhumed from Schulz's text is made all the poignant by the gaps in between words, which have an extraordinary resonance.

Tree of codes closeup — Safran Foer first considered using dictionaries and encyclopaedias to construct his story. 'But any of those options would have merely spoken to the process,' he says. 'I was in search of a text whose erasure would somehow be a continuation of its creation.'

Malaika Byng is an editor, writer and consultant covering everything from architecture, design and ecology to art and craft. She was online editor for Wallpaper* magazine for three years and more recently editor of Crafts magazine, until she decided to go freelance in 2022. Based in London, she now writes for the Financial Times, Metropolis, Kinfolk and The Plant, among others.