L’immeuble mode d’emploi : Building Stories ou l’art de dégrafer le roman graphique américain

This article will focus on a unique visual piece of art, which can neither be categorised as a proper graphic novel nor suit the definition of an artist’s book. Building Stories is a story of an architectural structure, the evolution of a Chicago building through time. And yet, it is also a story on storytelling itself. Comic strips are conceived as architectural units, which are then assembled like individual houses. The concept of adaptation is at the core of the project. The building gradually adapts to its inhabitants while we witness the characters’ transformations through different stages of their lives as they experience maternity, disability or loneliness. Building Stories can also be read as the celebration of the materiality of the book in the digital age.