West (2011)

The Swedish Design Award 2012:

Jury statement:

“What can be more tempting than a racy story? Nothing. In this book we come upon the very emblem of a work of reportage in text and images. We are caught by events, details, portraits, atmospheres and personifications and with a firm hand we are carried westward in the company of ‘West’.”


Dana Joseph, Cowboys & Indians, USA:

”A particularly incisive and beautiful coffee-table book… The work of journalist Lars Åberg, photographer Lars Strandberg, and designer Ronnie Nilsson, ‘West’ holds a mirror up to the Western ideal and reflects back a sense of place as insightful and thought-provoking as any produced by generations of astute cultural observers who have chosen this expansive land as their subject.

It’s a photographic journey through both the literal and figurative landscape. Images capture everything from the arrested decay of the California ghost town of Bodie to the supercharged smile of a decked-out Arizona rodeo queen. The quality of the photos on heavy stock paper might make you consider buying two copies: one to keep intact and one to cut to pieces for framing.

As much as the oversize book is about those images, it’s also about the writing. A thinking person’s travelogue, it explores notions of the American West as a symbol of freedom, a launch pad for personal reinvention, and an outpost of individualistic isolationism. This is the West of rodeo and wild horses, cowboy poetry and country music, red dirt and desert, lonely roads and pueblos, bars and buttes – evocative and provocative terrain for the mining, and ‘West’ delves beneath the surface with a poetic investigative zeal.

It’s a wide-open European perspective on the wide-open American spaces.”


Marilyn Warnick, The Mail on Sunday, London, UK:

“The West might have endless sweeping skies and alien, wind-blown prairies that shrink you to a speck, but this is no mythical landscape. In this unforgiving wilderness, the cowboy is an enduring presence rather than some figment swaggering through spaghetti Westerns. Rodeos, too, still draw the crowds to watch men pitting their bruised and battered bodies against bucking horses and snorting, angry bulls.

And that reality has been wonderfully captured by an unlikely team. Photographer Lars Strandberg and journalist Lars Aberg, who are both Swedish, have brought us ‘West’.

Together they have created a visual memoir of a part of America that for years has gripped the imagination.”


John Perry Barlow, writer, ex-rancher, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, USA:

”It’s lovely, lyrical in that cowboy way, unsentimental, and true.”


Conor Purcell, the Emirates Airline inflight magazine Open Skies, Dubai, UAE:

“Our photo essay sees us head to America’s heartland, where three Swedes have produced a stunning book.”

(In the magazine, “West” is featured over ten pages.)


David Bolling, Sonoma Magazine, USA:

“One of the most difficult challenges in life is to see ourselves as others see us. We all need mirrors that reflect reality, but if we hold them in our own hands, the image is too often distorted by our personal perspectives. We tend to be unwilling to look honestly at who we are, afraid we won’t like what we see.

Which is why those of us living in the American West – hell, everyone living in America – should give thanks to a trio of Swedes who bring us closer to ourselves with a collection of photos and essays that ring painfully, powerfully and yet lovingly true.

The essays of Lars Aberg, the photos of Lars Strandberg, and the design of Ronnie Nilsson are an absolute gift, if we are only willing to receive them…

This is a great book, and a great holiday gift. Give it to someone who wants a clear reflection.”


Kyrie O’Connor, Houston Chronicle, USA:

“Leave it to some Swedes to produce a gorgeous book about the American West.

The book, called simply ‘West,’ is a marvelous slab, not quite a coffee-table book (it’s more sophisticated than most of that genre), but it is chock full of rich, vibrant photographs and careful, evocative prose. Oh, and the design is breathtaking.”


Larry Moyer, painter, photographer, and filmmaker, Sausalito, USA:

“One of the best books I’ve seen…

It’s so beautifully done. Most photographers would give their right nut to be able to get a book like this out. I don’t know how you guys did it. A lot of the photos look like paintings. I could sell anyone of them as a painting…

I read your stuff. You wrote it? Terrific, man. You’re good. You know more about America than most American writers. Just terrific.”


Delphine Lucas, The Sun Runner Magazine, Joshua Tree, USA:

“Five palm trees out of five!

A truly magnificent book. Each photograph in this book is a work of art on its own… These pictures celebrate color photography at its best. On so many levels this book gave me a visual feast…

I liked the writing even more than the photos, although neither is meant to be separated from one another… What drew me into the book was the imagery of the words chosen by the writer to show us why people head west…

…a real treasure, down to every detail… A superb book!”


Rick Huff, “Best of The West Reviews” at CowboyPoetry.com, USA:

“‘West’ is a remarkable coffee table book offering a compendium of what is created and born…intentionally and not…just from being there. It could be revealing of the intent here that the book is simply called ‘West’. More than a place, it’s the reason, result and reward for turning an exploring eye in that direction.

Three Swedish devotees of The West offer a uniquely perceptive and querying look at something we may not know as well as we think we do. They accomplish the astonishing task through text (Åberg), photos (Strandberg) and artful design (Nilsson). At first the eccentric randomness of the approach may seem like skipping stones across a pond’s surface, but it’s soon obvious this trio realizes there’s a far deeper pool beneath as they swim and dive in their subject and the people of it. Along the way you’ll experience strong splashes of ethos against mythos since from ‘West’ we get the surface shimmer and the bottom grit. Yet we love it.

Artists who ‘paint’ in visual, aural or printed media should keep this book close at hand. From such stimuli the creative eye will repeatedly create on its own.”


Erin Feher, California Home + Design, USA:

“…the gorgeous new book ‘West’…

As American cities continue to climb higher and grow denser, the fascination with the sparsely settled expanses that remain is burning brighter than ever. ‘West’ , a new book by Swedish trio Lars Strandberg, Lars Åberg and Ronnie Nilsson, explores what’s left of the Wild West – the dusty lands of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California – through eerie photographs (by Strandberg) and poetic prose (by Åberg).

The book opens with images of the abandoned town of Bodie, California, about which Åberg writes, ‘It was an established truth that no miming town could be worse than Bodie in terms of bad men and foul weather.’ But the book isn’t all tales of the trouble that brewed out West – moving portraits of proud rodeo men and the remains of rainbow-bright towns such as Butte, Montana, ensure the book reads something like a love letter to the land that sits just outside our modern cities yet seems years and worlds away.”


Ranch & Reata Magazine, USA:

“The stunning book is an homage to the off-the-beaten path West, as if the authors threw away their Michelin Guide, put the top down on the rental car and headed out west to points unknown. The result is a stirring vision of a region in flux…

In their journey through the mythology and the landscape of the West’s wide expanses, they have created a truly beautiful portrait of the modern West that is at once celebratory and non-stereotypically engrossing.”


Ranch & Reata Magazine, USA (again):

In the magazine’s August-September issue 2015, “West” is featured with eleven photographs from the book:

“‘West’ is a lovely, creative look at the romance and design of the American West through the eyes of a Swedish writer and photographer.

The book is wonderfully presented and bound as it captures the true spirit of America’s western region – and its forces of nature. It embraces the fascinating notion that the republic should not be thought of as the center of the world but rather as the drifter that still tries to get away. A graphic look at America’s most exciting and captivating region as viewed from afar.”


Lee Juillerat, Herald and News, USA:

“‘West’ is a beautifully designed, written and photographed book about the American West. In this hefty photo essay, it’s the American West as seen through the eyes — and words and lens — of Europeans obviously captivated by what they experienced. The photos range from incisive portraits of cowboys to stark scenes of decaying roadside attractions to imaginatively angled images of rodeo scenes. The writing is excellent, too.”


Horse & Rider Magazine, UK:

”Discover the reality behind the fantasy with stunning photography and vivid description from evocative book ‘West’.”


Alison Roth, Denver Life Magazine, USA:

“Page-turner: ‘West’ by Lars Strandberg, Lars Åberg and Ronnie Nilsson, deserves a prime spot on your coffee table. This Swedish team embarked on a journey through the western U.S. to document the everyday lives and breathtaking landscapes. With rave international reviews and awards, don’t miss out on this uniquely European perspective of the West.”


Matthew Irwin, Santa Fe Reporter, USA:

“A beautifully crafted object full of candid images… ‘West’, I’m sure, will appear on bookshelves in high-end gift shops in Bozeman, Jackson Hole, Aspen, and Taos… beautiful photographs by Lars Strandberg, poetic language by Lars Åberg and vocal design by Ronnie Nilsson…”


Julie Preble, Horse & Rider Magazine, USA:

“Have you ever wondered what the rest of the world thinks of the great American West? This book is your chance to find out. Swedes Lars Åberg and Lars Strandberg take you along on their journey, captured through beautiful photography. It’ll make you want to pack your bag and start heading west!”


Tim O’Byrne, Working Ranch Magazine, USA:

”Strandberg’s real-as-it-gets photographs, reproduced in this thick book on matte paper, combined with Aberg’s notations and Nilsson’s design, evoke a European traveler’s view of our home, complete with enthusiastic and refreshing explanations of things we may have taken for granted simply because it is our home. Good job, gentlemen.”


Montana Best Times, USA:

“Just when you think you’ve seen every book there is about the West, along comes ‘West’, a unique book about the American West as seen through Swedish eyes… Through its imagery — at least half the book consists of superb photos of people, places and events, some 300 in all — and European perspective, ‘West’ presents an interesting new take on the American West.”


Stephanie Hainsfurther, abqARTS, Albuquerque, USA:

“Represented beautifully in an ecology-minded coffee table book, Strandberg’s light-filled photos and Åberg’s ruminations on the people and places they encountered remind us why we live here.”


Ashley Biggers, New Mexico Magazine, USA:

“‘West’ seeks to capture the personality of this place, which is simultaneously hardworking and free-spirited… it succeeds in depicting the scenery and characters that make up the Western landscape, from the swirling color of a rodeo cowboy being bucked to dried-up old schoolhouses with dusty world globes.”


HorseOwnerToday.com, Canada:

“‘West’ is a fascinating book, a riveting book. 
It is rare that a book can appeal to the reader on so many levels. Aberg and Strandberg have accomplished combining folklore and documentary within the format of the coffee table book. 
West is crafted in such a manner that you participate in a journey through the American West. Lars Strandberg has created a collection of photographs that are stunning and heart wrenching, a very clear vision of the American West today. Lars Aberg writes of their experiences throughout the journey, a European perspective of the American West including cowboy poets, country doctors, cattle drives, and surprisingly the economic impact of modern culture on the American West. Lars Aberg, Lars Strandberg, Ronnie Nilsson are an outstanding team.

The cover of ‘West’ begs to be touched! The texturing and stamping contrasted with slick binding, patriotic red and blue dividing ribbons and nostalgic photography makes it difficult to resist picking up.

‘
West’ is a definite ‘must have’ book.


Ross Hecox, Western Horseman, USA:

”In his new book, ‘West’, author Lars Åberg writes about one of the most unique geographic locations in the world – the American West… Åberg and photographer Lars Strandberg, both from Sweden, offer a European perspective on the Western culture of the United States… ‘West’ is artfully designed using Strandberg’s striking photography. The book is loaded with images of rodeo cowboys, bridles and saddles, ghost towns, Native Americans and stunning landscapes.”


Sonja Stimmer, Spirit of The West, USA, Western magazine in German:

”The American West as seen by two Swedes. With their book, author Lars Åberg and photographer Lars Strandberg offer a European perspective on the culture in western USA. Artfully designed by Ronnie Nilsson, this coffee-table book gives us an extraordinary view of this land. Expressive pictures of cowboys, saddles, ghost towns, Indians and breath-taking landscapes are paired with partly poetic stories. The 264 pages are divided into 13 chapters such as ’Rodeo’, ’Wild Horses’ and ’Lonely Road’ depicting the West. Bound and printed on heavy paper it will make a great impression on the gift table.”


Nevada Magazine, USA:

“Swedish writer Lars Aberg, photographer Lars Strandberg, and designer Ronnie Nilsson have created an expansive pictorial and written take on the American West from a distinctly European perspective. The book contains hundreds of photographs of the Western United States interspersed with poetry and narrative. The book recently won the prestigious Swedish Design Award 2012 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.”


Billings Gazette, USA:

“The West in new light… a substantial book full of images and contemplations on the American West.”


Midwest Book Review, USA:

“‘West’ provides an outstanding collection of color photo images certain to be of interest to history and photography holdings alike, and offers a lovely portrait of the modern Western environment. It comes from the efforts of a journalist and an internationally-known photographer, and it offers a unique European take on the American West, blending an artistic consideration of the evolution of the Western landscape in a selection deserving ongoing mention and recommendation for any arts or American history holding.”


Wendy Werris, Publishers Weekly, USA:

”A different look at the region and its culture… In addition to landscape images, a good portion of the book includes intimate interviews with and portraits of individuals.”


Leigh Ballard, Mid-South Horse Review, USA:

“An extraordinary coffee table book… Stunning photography captures the magical color in the deserts and mountains of the American west. Old cars, adobe, and road signs are subjects of dreamy photography resembling watercolor paintings…

The commentary accompanying the photos chronicles the authors’ poetic and mythical journey through a rugged, beautiful landscape and their observations of a lifestyle of free spirit and hard work.”


Ingrid Schultz, Western Horse Review, Canada:

“I have two further book considerations for your Christmas wish list today. The first is ‘West’, penned and photographed by two Swedes, Lars Aberg and Lars Strandberg, who share a passion for the American West.

Physically, it’s a large book, with 300 images and prose printed artfully on a matte paper which suits the style well. The pair travelled extensively throughout the West, digging into the oddest corners of mythology and everyday life, contemplating a lifestyle that involves hard work as well as vision, and portraying a vast region with both environmental problems, stunning beauty and plenty of what we think of as the human touch.

It fits dreamy and contemplative Sunday afternoons, one of those books you can get lost in for an hour or so.”


Jeri Dobrowski, “Cowboy Jam Session” at CowboyPoetry.com, USA:

“Contemplating the obsession with the American West – at once a Utopia and a brutal land of dust and drought – Lars Strandberg, Lars Åberg, and Ronnie Nilsson collaborated on ‘West’. I had the good fortune of meeting Lars and Lars in Nevada, during the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The pair was visiting from Sweden. The gathering provided an opportunity for them to connect with artists from across the West, yielding both photos and fodder for the thought-provoking essays.

I was taken with the materials and construction of the debossed cover, spending considerable time admiring it before venturing inside to study the essays, portraits, scenery, and action shots. Small wonder it received the prestigious 2012 Swedish Design Award. It encompasses, among other locations and subjects, the ghost town of Bodie, Calif.; Cape Flattery on the Olympic peninsula; rodeo; ranching; pueblos; sagebrush; abandoned vehicles; derelict signs; and Butte! The varied format – black-and-white and color, wallet-sized up to 2-page spreads – adds to the appeal of the images taken on their Western odyssey.”


Valerie Harms, Distinctly Montana Magazine, USA:

“A terrific book.”


Abigail Holstein, HarperCollins Publishers, USA:

“It is an exceptionally beautiful book, from its words to its photographs to its design.”


Claire Chandler, Merrill Publishers, UK:

“What a beautifully produced book!”


Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader, USA:

“It’s beautiful!”


Western Folklife Center, Elko, USA:

“In this stunning 9″ x 12″ hardcover book, offering a European take on the American West, Swedish author Lars Åberg and photographer Lars Standberg journey through the mythology and landscape of the wide expanses. Winner of the Swedish Design Award 2012, as announced October 18, 2012 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm! With designer Ronnie Nilsson, Åberg and Strandberg have created a truly beautiful, insightful and engrossing portrait of the American West. We’re pleased to have this one on our shelves, from friends who’ve attended many National Cowboy Poetry Gatherings.”


Cheryl Byrnes, Country Music Capital News, Australia:

“Photographer Lars Strandberg and writer Lars Åberg travelled extensively through America’s west and it’s their imagery and European perspective that separate this book from others… digging into mythology and everyday life, and portraying a vast region including the environmental problems, the beauty and the human affection.”


Sheplers Western Wear, USA:

“A book for those inspired by big skies, good people and open spaces. Gorgeous photographs of the people and places of the Plains… This book is a great piece for your coffee table – and a sure conversation starter! More than 250 pages of breathtaking photographs of the people and the land of the West. Open the pages and discover America through the eyes of Swedish writer Lars Aberg and photographer Lars Strandberg as they discover our country’s scenic rural landscapes.”


Claire Woods, Z Magazine, Sweden:

“Well this is fairly unusual. Three Swedes have created an internationally acclaimed photo book about the American West, in English, with an American publisher. The book is based on photographer Lars Strandberg and writer Lars Åberg’s many travels in the region, and has been graciously designed by Ronnie Nilsson…

It should come as no surprise that ‘West’ was awarded the Swedish Design Award 2012 in the books category. Its wide variety of intriguing people, beautiful landscapes and more or less hard-boiled cowgirls and cowboys makes this a fascinating journey through a forgotten part of North America.”


Pierre Hellqvist, Swedish TV 4:

“A magnificent luxury work.”


Björn G Stenberg, Swedish morning daily Upsala Nya Tidning:

“Photographer Lars Strandberg and journalist Lars Åberg (who also wrote the book ‘Cowboy’ ten years ago) traveled out West to meet and, not least, confront their own myths. This has nothing to do with sentimentality or nostalgia, but rather with finding something rugged and genuine.

Having returned to their home country, they teamed up with the eminent designer Ronnie Nilsson and the result became the superbly beautiful ‘West’, a coffee table book that fires the imagination. Completely logically, it also won the Swedish Design Award 2012…

‘West’ is a book you want to slowly dip into to take delight in the pictures, all of them maintaining a high artistic standard, the heartfelt, poetic prose – in English – and not least the design itself. All three components work together and create an unusual and lovely book to lose oneself in and be inspired by…

Best: that everything functions together so organically.

Worst: that one cannot just drop everything and immediately head out West.”


Johan Malmberg, Swedish morning daily Sydsvenskan:

“In his magnificent coffee table book ‘West’, author Lars Åberg journeys back to the topic he writes best about, the America of myths and wide expanses. He travels with photographer Lars Strandberg, who adopts the same emotional palette; sometimes windswept black and white, alternately filtered landscapes emitting a sense of hand-colorerad nostalgia…

When Lars Åberg writes about people looking for their Eden it is not a critique of the transformation of the American wilderness, but rather a tale about its possibilities. He journeys via Marlboro men in Wyoming, horse drivers in Montana, Echo the cowgirl, and all these cowboy poets from whom Lars Åberg’s language borrows its tone. The dumping of nuclear waste in Nevada sneaks its way into the story – but otherwise modernity exists mostly in exile. Here, people want to be left to themselves, the symbol of individualism packaged the American way…

‘West’ is romance, but hardly naivete. It is romantized in the way of a road movie allowing itself to live with one part steeped in the fiction of popular culture. To Lars Åberg this happens through cowboy prose and a soundtrack where Joni Mitchell, Lucinda Williams and Sonny Rollins accompany these ghost towns that appear like Edward Hopper paintings and where characters tower like Sam Shepard in a Wim Wenders movie or in the fatefulness of Cormac McCarthyland…

‘West’ is also a book project as out of phase with the zeitgeist as cowboy life itself. 266 high quality-pages beautifully designed by Ronnie Nilsson with heavy texture and aiming for the American market. Despite this, I believe that Lars Åberg, if he could, would have wanted to summarize everything in a single country tune. One that ’you may cry just thinking about it’. A song about America that can capture the wisdom of a lifetime in three minutes.”


Tomas Polvall, Swedish morning daily Västerbottens-Kuriren:

”‘West’ is not just words and images from journeys in western USA. It is also a journey to dreams about a different kind of life and the longing for a reality that is almost gone…

‘West’ is the meeting between reality and fantasy, between time and landscape, between oblivion and yearning. Strandberg’s black-and-white images depict the world of cowboys and Indians. I like the relaxed intensity in the partly averted portraits. The landscape pictures bear the stamp of candid simplicity, at times with a minimalism that gives them extra weight… Åberg’s text balances on that linguistic knife-edge where myths, dreams and realistic accounts share the space.”


Eva Sternäng, Swedish daily Kvällsposten:

“Lars Strandberg’s pictures from a distant region far from the trendy media landscape, in an America that not even Hollywood has been able to commercialize despite countless scenes from its unreality, tell a languishing story and seem to glow from within themselves…

Close to the images, Lars Åberg’s words meander like a textile pattern shaped by emotional connections, helpful hooks and pauses for thought. Unexpectedly poetic…

Actually this artistic constellation is the most tempting advertisement for the U.S. that I’ve seen in a long time. And this even if the Wild West seems to have stopped growing. Or maybe precisely because of that.”


Tony Ernst, Swedish music magazine Sonic:

”…it creates an insatiable yearning to go there, to the far end of The Frontier, to that borderline where myth and truth become one.

Lars Åberg has written powerfully about the big western country for almost forty years. He has gone beyond ultrared convictions and biased angles, in a cool and level-headed fashion, and he has done this on location like an old-time adventurer. He has done it because he has to.”


Tomas Polvall, Swedish daily Smålandsposten:

“One of this year’s five best photo books:

‘West’ is the encounter between reality and fantasy, between oblivion and desire. Lars Strandberg’s black-and-white photographs depict the world of cowboys and Indians. The laid-back intensity of the partly averted portraits is appealing.”


Eva Dandanelle, Swedish FOTO magazine:

“‘West’ makes the movie set pieces pale and leave room for a more multifaceted image of the American West… It is not the idealized, sentimental view of the West that Strandberg and Åberg convey but that of the curious traveler… A book which with its stories manages to cut in behind the cliché-ridden facades from the Western movies.”


Göran Widerberg, Swedish trade union magazine Dagens Arbete:

”Music, books and films have kept the myth of the Wild West alive. Now journalist and author Lars Åberg adds his contribution. With Lars Strandberg (photo) and Ronnie Nilsson (design) he has succeeded in having ‘West’ published directly in English. Åberg has a talent for the subject. In 1977 came ’Kluven tunga’, about the American Indian Movement, later a textbook about the U.S., and in 2002 the highly praised ‘Cowboy’, reissued last year. In ‘West’ he moves through the landscape and the myths, talking to people and portraying today’s society leaning against yesterday’s nostalgia…

For those Americans who have preferred the West over the East, the attraction lies in a heritage of self-chosen alienation with both self-esteem and pride. And also a dream about community. The dream of the timeless small town. Lars Åberg scratches the commercialized surface, showing that the soul of the West is still there beneath the pale prairie moon or in the shadow of a mesa.”


Åsa Wikberg, Swedish riding magazine Lucky Rider:

”The book, which would be better described as a luxury work or a coffee table book, has 266 pages and by Swedish standards it is a conspicuously lush production. Big, expressive pictures, printed on thick, matte paper providing the content with the right feeling. The American West poetically described in text and imagery, from the details to the bigger picture, history and today’s life in the land of contrasts. Everything is extremely well composed in the graphic design by Ronnie Nilsson.”


Helena Wennström, Swedish ATL Magazine:

“The book describes the romantic feeling of everything being possible as you hop into a car and drive west. But we also get the real, tough life out there…”


Ola Liljedahl, Malmö Aviation inflight magazine Grip:

“Someone who lets his journeys become both work, pleasure and dreams is writer Lars Åberg from Malmö. Now acclaimed internationally for his book ‘West’ about a barren part of the United States… So beautiful, so magical, so inspiring… In ‘West’, there are celebrated texts by Lars Åberg and truly fantastic pictures by Lars Strandberg.”


Karin Henriksson, Swedish morning daily Svenska Dagbladet:

“Swedes praised for book about the West…very positive articles and reviews…”


“Rafael56”, reader review in The Guardian, UK:

“A fantastic journey: Swedish eyes looking at the myth, the nature and the people in the West. A journey that involuntarily turns into poetry. A book that surprises and makes you feel some kind of hope. There are people really living in the West. They are not part of a reality show. They are alive.”


“pattyjane”, reader review in The Guardian, UK:

“If you haven’t yet picked up ‘West’, by Lars Aberg and Lars Strandberg, go do it now. This is true especially if you love the idea of the American West but would just as soon skip the sentimentality that too often marks journalistic attempts to capture it. This is a coffee table book with a brain. Woven from years of two Swedes’ travels west of the Rockies, it successfully balances Strandberg’s stunning photos and Aberg’s sparse, engaging prose poetry.”


Customer reviews, amazon.com:

“This is one of the best books I have read, full of infomation. Very good read. Anyone interested in horses and the West should read this book.”

“It’s not a journey, it’s a mixture of poetry and adventure.”

“I saw this book on display in a shop in Fredricksburg, Tx, and knew immediately that it would be the perfect gift for my mother. Ordered it here and we couldn’t be happier! She loves the graphics and the intriguing character study of the book. Also makes a great coffee table pickup since it has such wonderful pictures.”

“If you haven’t seen and read this book, I highly recommend it. I read after hearing that it won the Swedish design prize, and I found myself thinking rather deeply about all the notions and myths about the West that run through the American discourse. This book has the visual beauty of a coffe table book, but it also has a lovely, lyrical narrative… It really is a remarkable and beautiful book.”

“Would love to have it in Swedish, too.”