Fourthwall Books (2015-2023)
Fourthwall Books was established in Johannesburg in 2010 by writer and editor Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and designer Oliver Barstow. Their aim was to publish books at the intersection between art and literature; books that were out of the ordinary, provocative, insightful, experimental, well designed, interesting to read, and gratifying to hold and look at. In 2015 Oliver left for Amsterdam, and given my life-long interest and experience in all things book, and having already worked closely together with Bronwyn on the two publications Hotel Yeoville (2013) and Wide Angle (2014), she invited me to join the project as her new Fourthwall Books partner, editor and project co-director.
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Between 2010 and 2023, Fourthwall Books produced almost fifty titles, several of which earned local and international awards for their design and writing. Our books have contributed to debates on many pressing issues facing South Africa, and we have been recognised for our distinctive approach to art and photography book publishing.
Twelve years in, and as fundraising for each new book project began to take up more and more of our time (and become more and more difficult) we began to talk about taking a break, and giving our own creative work and the books we ourselves were each writing more time. Bronwyn has recently moved to Adelaide, and while the imprint is still there for the occasional book, Fourthwall Books is now sitting upon a back burner. Our website is still up and running with all back title information, and information about where to buy our books, and below is the list of all of our awards.
Awards:
The 2010 Jane Jacobs best Urban Book Award (New York) for Lindsay Bremner’s Writing the City into Being
The 2011 Antalis Book Design Award for Oliver Barstow and Bronwyn Law-Viljoen’s Fire Walker
The 2015 Jan Rabie Rapport Prize for Non-Fiction for Stephanus Muller’s Nagmusiek
The 2015 KykNet Rapport Prize for Fiction for Stephanus Muller’s Nagmusiek
The 2016 Eugene Marais Prize for Stephanus Muller’s Nagmusiek
The 2018 NIHSS Award for Non-Fiction for Rick Rhode’s Hanging on a Wire
The 2019 Alan Paton Sunday Times Award for Non-Fiction for Terry Kurgan’s Everyone is Present, which was also a 2019 National Jewish Book Awards finalist (New York), and on the shortlist of the 2019 Photo-Arles Book Prize.
