The forest

Told without a single word, this graphic novella unfolds across twenty-five separate illustrations by Swiss artist Thomas Ott. A young boy slips away from a family funeral and wanders into the deep woods, where he is confronted with what the book presents as humanity's greatest fear. From there he must decide which way to go.

Ott draws each image in scratchboard, a method in which a surface is coated in black and then scraped away to reveal white. Because the pictures are built from what remains uncut, the pages depend on negative space, and the stark contrast gives them an unsettling force.

Ott uses this technique for dark, eerie parables with a horror undercurrent. This edition is printed on heavy art paper with Pantone Black ink so that the fine detail of the linework comes through clearly.