entire book
above: sky; below: river
above: sky meets stone; below: river meets forest
above: stone; below: structure
text detail showing the word river in five languages
Shown in some of the images above as two side-by-side excerpts, the actual book is a single accordion fold that unfurls from a 6″ square to a full 240″ in length, suggesting the long, undulating form of a river.
The Buffalo National River in Arkansas is one of the few remaining free-flowing rivers in the contiguous 48 states. Here, five features of that landscape are examined one by one, visually distilled into swatches of color and texture. Each topic—sky, stone, river, forest, and structure—is also translated into the languages that have historically been spoken by residents, explorers, and stewards of the land: Osage, Spanish, French, Cherokee, and English.
elementals: river was the first in a continuing series. It was followed by elementals: desert. Subsequent books will also focus on a particular geographic feature, such as coast, island, mountain, or lake. As with river, each of the books will draw its imagery from the actual environment and history of a specific parcel of the American landscape that has either been preserved in its original form, or has slowly begun returning to it, thanks to the National Parks Service.
Elementals: Fragments of the Original Landscape
Buffalo National River
40 pages
6″ x 6″ (closed)
6″ x 240″ (open)
