Terra Nova

Terra Nova is an excerpt from a novel that fellow Jan van Eyck participant Esther De Soomer has been developing during her residency. In this text, she grapples with the loss of German, one of her mother tongues. Through her work, she explores the connection between language loss and Waldsterben, focusing on endangered European forests. Her writing weaves together oral traditions such as folk tales while questioning the words and grammatical structures that shape our very being.

Presented in both German and English, the publication allows the two languages to be read in tandem. The cover is a two-colour screen print on Forest Green Colorplan paper. The interior pages are printed in single-colour RISO on Biotop paper. Pages: 2 x 20 pages

Design: Shaun Naufahu 
Publication concept: An Onghena and Ton van de Ven
Illustration: Xiao Zhiyu
Translation: Rudolph Glitz