All American

That most American of activities, the cross-country road trip, is here appropriated by two Dutch artists who set out to understand the United States in a way they never could through advertisements. From Los Angeles to New York, photographer Auke Vleer and designer Barbara Dijkuis traveled 8,000 kilometers (or 5,000 miles, depending on your point of view) over backroads and through small towns, documenting the landscapes, places and people they met along the way. A map that cleverly folds open from the cover of the book documents their journey. Through 750 images, laid out geographically from West Coast to East, the artists put the reader in the back seat, showing her America through their eyes. Tyler Whisnand's text for the book provides the soundtrack on the car's radio and the ultimate one-liner: inspired by Vleer and Dijkuis's pictures, Whisnand wrote a 3,000-word sentence that reflects his own vision of his home country.