'With most experiences in life now, we expect more and more,' says Britt Iversen, co-founder of new London-based publishing house Visual Editions. 'So why not with books?' As she proves with the company's first tome - a new edition of Laurence Sterne's 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' - the traditional reading medium has not lost its capacity to surprise.
At the axis of Visual Editions is a belief in 'visual writing'. It is via this approach - which the company takes to both fiction and non-fiction - that Sterne's 18th-century novel shakes off its Dover Classics image and emerges refreshed for a 21st-century readership.
Visual Editions approached A Practice For Everyday Life, a London-based graphic design studio that has taken commissions from the likes of FAT architects and the Tate, with one clear instruction: to stay faithful to Sterne's playful spirit. That aside, the designers were given free reign to create a book that remains elegant and visually beautiful amidst the pervading liveliness - which is backed up by a suitably irreverent forward from Will Self.
That Iversen and Visual Editions co-founder Anna Gerber bonded six years ago over a shared love of colour is self-evident; the book is shot through with an arresting shade of orange. 'Anna has been teaching design for ten years, currently at the London College of Communication,' Iversen explains. 'When we met, we quickly discovered our devotion to colour.' Meanwhile, Iversen herself works at advertising agency, Mother, now in her ninth year, and so brings a 'broader, more poppy' experience to the table.
The central tenet of Visual Editions is that aesthetic additions should never be extraneous or gimmicky; rather they should reinforce and help deliver a narrative. Visual devices range from using photography, die-cuts and even blank pages. In the new edition of Tristram Shandy, a shut door is represented by a folded down page, and perspiration is depicted using a marbled black-and-white photograph in a feat of ocular onomatopoeia.
A folded-down page represents a shut door in the narrative
Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen bonded over their shared love of colour, as evidenced by the fluorescent orange inside cover
The black page from ’Tristram Shandy’ features overprinted text from previous chapters
The book is shot through with this arresting shade of orange
Visual Editions’ debut book demonstrates the ’visual writing’ principle on which the company is founded
Repetitive sounds in the narrative take on a visual shape, reinforcing their impact
-
Valie Export in Milan: 'Nowadays we see the body in all its diversity'Feminist conceptual artists Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca are in dialogue at Thaddaeus Ropac Milan. Here, Export tells us what the body means to her now
-
Martell’s high-tech new cognac bottle design takes cues from Swiss watch-making and high-end electronicsUnconventional inspirations for a heritage cognac, perhaps, but Martell is looking to the future with its sharp-edged, feather-light, crystal-clear new design
-
In 2025, fashion retail had a renaissance. Here’s our favourite store designs of the year2025 was the year that fashion stores ceased to be just about fashion. Through a series of meticulously designed – and innovative – boutiques, brands invited customers to immerse themselves in their aesthetic worlds. Here are some of the best
-
Inside the seductive and mischievous relationship between Paul Thek and Peter HujarUntil now, little has been known about the deep friendship between artist Thek and photographer Hujar, something set to change with the release of their previously unpublished letters and photographs
-
Nadia Lee Cohen distils a distant American memory into an unflinching new photo book‘Holy Ohio’ documents the British photographer and filmmaker’s personal journey as she reconnects with distant family and her earliest American memories
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe rain is falling, the nights are closing in, and it’s still a bit too early to get excited for Christmas, but this week, the Wallpaper* team brought warmth to the gloom with cosy interiors, good books, and a Hebridean dram
-
Inside Davé, Polaroids from a little-known Paris hotspot where the A-list playedChinese restaurant Davé drew in A-list celebrities for three decades. What happened behind closed doors? A new book of Polaroids looks back
-
Inside the process of creating the one-of-a-kind book edition gifted to the Booker Prize shortlisted authorsFor over 30 years each work on the Booker Prize shortlist are assigned an artisan bookbinder to produce a one-off edition for the author. We meet one of the artists behind this year’s creations
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* editors curated a diverse mix of experiences, from meeting diamond entrepreneurs and exploring perfume exhibitions to indulging in the the spectacle of a Middle Eastern Christmas
-
14 of the best new books for music buffsFrom music-making tech to NME cover stars, portable turntables and the story behind industry legends – new books about the culture and craft of recorded sound
-
Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
