TREES: A ROOTED HISTORY

Trees: A Rooted History by Piotr Socha and Wojciech Grajkowski is far more than a simple catalog of tree classifications.

Rather, it highlights the botany, history, ecosystems, and cultural anthropology of the world's trees, examining everything about the role they play in our ecosystem. From root classification to deforestation, this book has everything a young botanist or archivist (or anyone!) could desire. The book catalogs such varied items as wooden art, forest tales, the art of topiary, and even the tree of evolution. It's incredibly comprehensive, and at eighty pages, it has a commanding presence from the content alone.

But the content isn't all this book has going for it. From the trim size (10.7 x 14.6) to the paper (matte and textured), there's a true sense of intentionality to every part of this book's design. Each new spread feels slightly different from the last, so there's never a sense of repetition as we flip through different types of sacred trees, tree monsters, and tree eaters. Every spread has a block of text that provides information about the different facets of trees, but the columns of text are so narrow that they really push the focus back on the illustrations. It's truly a visual marvel.

Trees: A Rooted History publishes next Tuesday, April 9, from Abrams.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, visit my policies & disclosures page.