OUR SPRING 2024 CATALOGUE

SUSTAINABILITY—OR: ABOUT THE PRUDENT PROVISIONING OF STOCK

As illustrated book publishers, can we think and act in a sustainable way? How can we prudently balance what concerns us as a team in Berlin on the one hand, and the numerous production areas (paper, printing and ink processing logistics) with their different relationships to consumption on the other hand, so that we act as CO₂-responsibly as possible? How should we talk about this with our business partners, suppliers and customers? How can we set positive impulses, how can step-by-step changes be brought about, and how can we enter into a dialogue with each other? For the book industry, “sustainability” often has to do with inventory management, the monitoring of print runs, paper sources, the locations of printers and delivery routes. In short, the Spring 2024 program presents to you not only great digital challenges, but also the very analogue ones raised by the prospect of CO₂ emissions.

Our longing for nature is reflected in the gaze of the unique painter Caspar David Friedrich, the highlight of our German spring program. We are happy to co-publish this title on the English market with Thames & Hudson. His topicality is also demonstrated by numerous other recent exhibitions as well as the outstanding catalogue by Markus Bertsch and Johannes Grave of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. With its visual explorations of nature, climate and the great questions of our time, this book also builds a bridge to contemporary art. One of the reasons why we believe in the future importance of images and books is that the visual arts can always provide us with points of reference in times of great uncertainty, and always offer completely new insights into images that we thought we had known for a long time.

With warm regards to all book lovers near and far,

Nicola von Velsen and the Hatje Cantz team