The Heart Is a Sandwich

A novel-sized paperback of twelve short, photograph-driven stories drawn from a decade of Jason Fulford's encounters in Italy.

Designed to look and feel like an ordinary paperback novel, complete with title page, dedication, and colophon in their expected places, the book gathers loosely linked episodes: a meeting with a ball-breaking baker, an exploding museum cellar, Aldo Rossi's notes on happiness, a visit to Guido Guidi's garage, and a trip to the geographic center of the Earth. Photographs and short prose passages are cut together with Fulford's characteristic editorial rhythm, where a picture's meaning shifts depending on what sits beside it. MACK published the 320-page book in April 2023 as an embossed softcover with flaps.

Fulford is known as much for his editing and sequencing as for his own photographs; he co-founded the independent press J&L Books and co-edited The Photographer's Playbook, a widely used collection of assignments from working photographers. His other titles include Raising Frogs for $$$ and Hotel Oracle, both built, like this one, around oblique narrative and visual pun rather than straightforward documentary sequence.