Success Story: Interwoven - Diana Scherer
Exercises in Rootsystem Domestication is a collection of the works and research of visual artist Diana Scherer that she spent eight years creating for her eponymous project. In this book you will find botanical installations, conceptual designs, objects, photography and textiles by this pioneer in biotechnological art. An extraordinary book that definitely deserves a place among our success stories. We spoke with Eleonoor Jap Sam of publishing house Jap Sam Books, about this special project.
How Interwoven came about
When Diana Scherer approached Jap Sam Books with the idea of making a book about her project Interwoven, one thing was immediately clear: this had to be a special book. With her work, Scherer explores the relationship between man and the natural environment, and the publisher wanted to release this autonomous publication simultaneously with a major solo exhibition Farming Textiles (October 1, 2023 - April 7, 2024) at Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen. After successfully launching fundraising, the book's three-person editorial team, Eleonoor, Diana and Edwin van Gelder (Mainstudio) could get to work. Eleonoor had introduced Diana and Edwin to each other at an earlier stage, and this turned out to be a good match.
The purpose of this book is, on the one hand, to appropriately compile Diana's work and, on the other, to open a new world for those not yet familiar with her work. The invited authors highlight the different sides of the project from different fields: visual art, design, engineering, philosophy, biology. Designer Edwin created a special tactile design, with a special alternation between image and text which requires a specialized printing. And that's where we come in!
Challenges: time constraints, translations and papers
This project, like most specialty projects, had a number of challenges. Many different papers were used in this book, so the lithography in particular had to be tuned very precisely to make Diana's work look as beautiful as possible. Those different papers make the book look organic, completely in line with Diana's works.
The time constraints also made this production exciting. We did several tests and proofs to make sure the book would come out well. And of course all this had to be completed before the launch date of the book which was linked to the opening date of exhibition. All in all, it was an intensive process, but with a wonderful result.
Well received
Interwoven has been very well received. For example, the book was voted one of the Best Edited Books of 2023, and it was also recently awarded a GOLD CUBE Publication Design by the ADC New York. Sales are going super well and the book is catching on internationally. Diana has presentations worldwide (including Manifesta 15 in Barcelona), with this book serving an important function. It is truly a production to be proud of!
Fine collaboration
Eleonoor has worked with us before and it was always very pleasant. Eleonoor says: "NPN Printing was a good fit for this project and knew how to deal with the heavy time pressure. As always, I put my project there with great confidence. It's nice when a printing company has expertise and thinks and looks critically and they absolutely do that at NPN. Because of the different types of paper, it was extra nice for this project that NPN Printing works with our selected lithographer Marc Gijzen. This allowed us to switch quickly and test really well."
About Diana Scherer
Visual artist Diana Scherer (b. 1971, DE) is a true pioneer in the field of biotechnological art. Her work is a combination of botany, installations, textiles and biotechnology. Diana investigates how people relate to their natural environment and explores the boundaries between plant culture and nature. She is fascinated by what neurobiologists call "the brain of plants" and this is reflected in her work. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and in 2016 Diana was selected by the New Material Award jury as a New Material Fellow for her Interwoven project.
Technical specifications
Size 230 x 308.4 mm portrait
Cover plano approx. 910 x 637 mm.
Size 204 Pages interior + cover
Prepress Based on supplied Certified PDF file
Paper Cover 100 gram Muskat Brown;
A) 40 pages 100 gram Muskat Brown;
B) 24 pages 140 gram Sirio Sabba;
C) 24 pages 90 gram EOS 2.0;
D) 40 pages 80 gram Holmen trnd vintage;
E) 60 pages 90 gram Emotion 1.8;
F) 16 pages 60 gram IBO one;
Print Cover 2/2 cover white
A) 1/1 PMS 876*
B) 4/4 full color
C) 4/4 full color
D) 1/1 PMS 876
E) 4/4 full color
F) 1/1 in black
Finish Cover folding (American)
Sewn-glued, cover glued into spine
