Atlas des Régions Naturelles, Vol. 2

Volume 2 of Atlas des Régions Naturelles, known as ARN, continues Eric Tabuchi and Nelly Monnier's survey of France's roughly 450 historical "natural regions". The project began in 2017 and treats the country as a set of repeating vernacular forms rather than as scenery.

The second volume follows the format fixed by the first: sixteen chapters in runs of three regional portraits followed by one thematic chapter. The regions here are Cambrésis, Chablais, Domfrontais, Haut Agenais, Haute Marche, Langrois, Médoc, Pays d'Othe, Plateau de Sainte-Maure, Presqu'île guérandaise, Roussillon and Valentinois. The four thematic chapters are Buffet à volonté, Enseignes-Objets, Non and Remises. They collect all-you-can-eat buffets, signs built as objects, the word No painted on walls and gates, and outbuildings. Across 384 pages and more than 500 photographs the book is softcover with a screen-printed cover, Otabind bound, with a folded map slipped in at the back as an index. The volume was shortlisted for the Arles PhotoBook Awards in 2022 and was produced with support from the Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA and the Villa du Parc.

Tabuchi and Monnier photograph the same way in every region, frontal and level, in flat light. A war memorial in the Morvan and a café in the Médoc read as entries in one inventory. The library holds Volumes 1 through 8 as separate records; each volume uses the same cover design in a different colour.