Created in collaboration with Volumes Zürich, this four-part book is equal parts manifesto, working archive, and conversation about what publishing is—and what it can become—between Korea and the German-speaking region.

The opening section, “Publishing Is Not Dead,” argues in the present tense. It traces the shift from artisanal bookmaking to today’s accessible, tool-rich culture where designers and non-designers alike publish—and where independent works proliferate alongside a global boom in art book fairs since the pandemic. Framed against Jan Tschichold’s “well-made book,” it asks what “well-made” means now, when materiality still has no true digital substitute. Grounded in South Korea and Switzerland, it looks at how books are actually read today and sketches a manifesto for making work that earns attention—on paper and beyond it. “Who Is Standing by Publishing?” maps the ecosystem that sustains this culture, archiving publishers, fairs, festivals, and designers in Korea and Switzerland to show who does what, where the gaps are, and how roles overlap. Two interview volumes anchor the second half: conversations with Sam Kim (Common Imprint, Berlin) and Anne-Laure Franchette (Volumes Zürich), alongside companion dialogues that widen the view from studio to fair to reader. “Beyond the paper” charts experiments at the boundary of the book—augmented reality, web-based archives, and other multi-sensory approaches—asking how digital environments can convey material qualities like texture, weight, and time.

Geographically focused on Switzerland and Korea, the book blends interviews, case studies, diagrams, and commentary to offer both practical pathways and critical questions. It is a resource for designers, editors, curators, and readers who believe publishing is not an artifact but a responsive medium—one that still shapes culture precisely because it keeps reinventing what a “book” can be.



Volumes Zurich
Sam Kim, Anne-Laure Franchette