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Design Category
Book design, 2003
Design firm
Princeton Architectural Press (New York, New York)
Collection
(2004) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2003
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Plywood is arguably the most modern design artifact: it is a material born of natural wood and formed by vigorous industrial processes that can assume the most organic of shapes through bending, laminating, and molding. Plywood truly fulfills that most modern of dreams: bridging the gap between technology and nature.
Bent Ply is the first book devoted to plywood in modern design. The book consists of two parts: the first, an illustrated history of plywood (tracing its origins to ancient Egypt, circa 2900 BC); the second, an annotated journal of the making of a piece of bent plywood furniture, from the forest to the showroom.
We were determined to make this book an object in itself. Its form truly follows its function.
“The tactile experience of the plywood cover gives a sense of what the materials reviewed in the book are about; their weight, surface, and colors.” Jack Woody