Salix babylonica

Self-initiated project Editorial / Publication Typography

Salix babylonica is a zine created in dialogue with a text by Ada Karlbauer, an exploration of the weeping willow as both physical presence and narrative device.

The publication follows a movement of looking: returning to the same tree again and again until memory, biography, family history, architecture and botanical description begin to overlap. Between documentary precision and subjective narration, the willow becomes a carrier of projections, an anchor for memory and a witness to the slow passing of time.

The design responds to this layered structure through fragmentation, repetition and temporal sequencing. Images, typographic interventions and shifts in pacing create a visual counterpart to the text's movement between documentation and speculation. Rather than illustrating, the design acts as an interpretive framework, extending the narrative into the material space of the zine.

Salix babylonica reflects on acts of looking, the construction of memory and the ways seemingly peripheral elements of our surroundings become vessels for personal and collective histories.