The Golden Letter for “Susi + Ueli Berger”

The awards in the “Best Book Design from all over the World” competition have been presented at the Leipzig Book Fair 2023. The competition's highest award is called the “Golden Letter,” and we are proud to announce that this year the Golden Letter was awarded to a book published by Scheidegger & Spiess. Susi + Ueli Berger. Kunst am Bau und im öffentlichen Raum 1968-2008 is the title of the winning book.

Susi + Ueli Berger

Kunst am Bau und im öffentlichen Raum 1968–2008

Edited by Raffael Dörig, Mirjam Fischer and Anna Niederhäuser

Designed by Dan Solbach, Fabian Harb and Maria Peskina

Out of print

The graphic artist and designer Susi Berger-Wyss (1938–2019) and the artist and designer Ueli Berger (1937–2008) created individually and together a diverse artistic and design oeuvre that includes graphics, painting, sculpture and furniture that has become classics. A central field of activity for the two was art on buildings and in public spaces, as well as color and signalization concepts. With around 120 designs and 70 realized works, they shaped this field in Switzerland for five decades. Among the best known of these are, for example, the Chribel (1986) in front of the headquarters of the Swiss Mobiliar Insurance Company in Bern or the homage to the Milchgässli (1982) in front of the Bern train station.

This book is the first comprehensive tribute to this important part of Susi and Ueli Berger's work. Numerous illustrations of mostly previously unpublished design drawings and photographs from archives document the projects and executed works. Together with texts by proven experts, the volume closes a gap in the reappraisal and examination of the work of the two and makes an important contribution to the history of Bernese and Swiss art in public space.

The jury praised in its statement: “A topic brought to life – the book design works perfectly as an invitation: The extensive work by design/artist couple Susi Berger-Wyss and Ueli Berger, which shaped the image of public space in Switzerland for decades, is conveyed in a photographic colour mood that absorbs the reader and manages to become part of the multifarious world of the Bergers without being distracted by any fierce design elements.”

The award-winning book was edited by Raffael Dörig, Mirjam Fischer, and Anna Niederhäuser, and we would like to extend our special congratulations to the U+S Berger Design/Kunst association, which has been working for years to record the work of the artist couple Ueli and Susi Berger, to maintain it and make it accessible to the public. Scheidegger & Spiess would like to express its heartfelt thanks to all those involved for this great honor, but especially to the design team Dan Solbach, Fabian Harb and Maria Peskina, who conceived and graphically realized the “Best Book Design from all over the World” 2023.

Incidentally, a title from our publishing house already won the Golden Letter in 2014: At that time, Valeria Bonin and Diego Bontognali from the Zürich design office Bonbon were awarded the top prize for the “Best Book Design from all over the World”. The prize was awarded to the outstanding volume of letters Meret Oppenheim – Worte nicht in giftige Buchstaben einwickeln, edited by Lisa Wenger and Martina Corgnati.

An international jury examines hundreds of nominated books and rates them for design, materiality and overall impression. The field of participants consists of all those titles that were chosen as prize winners in the respective national competition for the most beautiful book productions of a year. The Stiftung Buchkunst of the Börsenverein für den Deutschen Buchhandel (German Publishers and Booksellers Association), which has organized this unique competition since 1963, writes: “Despite cultural differences in book production, this competition is an attempt to compare the technical and aesthetic level as well as the appropriate and artistic design of books beyond national borders. The focus is on international exchange and mutual stimulation.” 570 books from 30 countries on all five continents participated in this 2023 showcase of outstanding book design and production.