In 1980, the International School of Sculpture ‘Kornarija’ was founded in the village of Marušići, Istria, Croatia. It was named after the long-abandoned Kornarija quarry (managed by the Kamen Pazin company). With a rich supply of sculpture materials, the quarry has become a suggestive sculptural outdoor studio. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Public Open University in Buje, Istria, decides to publish a book bearing the same name in order to raise public awareness about the impact this specific location in Istria has on the world of sculpture.

For creating a monograph, this atypical story required an unusual concept. Following Aristotle’s saying about sculpture: “… as if the form had been captured, drowned in mass, and the sculptor freed it by removing the excess, outer lining…”, we designed the book with the aim to make the cover resemble a stone. In such a way the readers model their book by tearing the cover in their own unique way. The content is protected on all sides (Munken Lynx Rough 300 gr/m² paper was used) so that the cover needs to be torn off to access the content. However, the choice of where and how to tear off the cover, and thus make a unique opening – a kind of sculpture, is left to the reader. After tearing/”modeling” the cover it remains stuck on the spine of the book so that the user is left with a unique copy of the work of which s/he is the author, too. Additionally, the title of the book in blind print and without color, does not disturb the stone concept, and furthermore, the debossed title resembles the carvings and the inscriptions on stone.

Sculptures of Kornarija can still be visited today, they are located not far from the village of Marušići, in the municipality of Grožnjan and the town of Buje.

The publisher of the monograph is the Buje Public Open University. The text was written by Majda Božeglav Japelj, Isabel H. Langtry, Rene Rusjan and Irena Brejc. The editors are the City of Buje, Burhan Hadžialjević, Gail Morris and Damjan Komel. The design and the concept of the book is signed by Studio Sonda.