2007 books
9) W.G. Sebald, Jan Peter Tripp, Unrecounted, 2003
A pairing of Max Sebald's brief, haiku-like poetry with the simple drawings of Jan Peter Tripp makes for some interesting and sometimes inexplicable juxtapositions. The drawings, of eyes, were never meant to illustrate the verse, and vice versa, though together they somehow spark off each other in hinting at several deeper and more implicit layers of meaning. Sebald's afterword - maybe the last thing he wrote before his death in 2001 - is intended as a guide to the artistic approach Tripp has adopted over fifty years, and he points out much that might otherwise be missed. This is a handsome volume from Penguin with pages formatted in landscape, and creatively inspiring in its simplicity.