Before, After

Before, After by French artists Anne Margot-Ramstein and Mattais Arégui is a wordless picture book, released in the U.S. in 2014, which addresses the cyclical nature of time.

In 126 fully illustrated pages the authors explore what time means and does to nature, animals, plants,  people, technology and our ways of thinking. Generally, each page spread represents one set of before and after. Many interact with one another or hearken to earlier sets of images, all of them are beautifully detailed and leave much to be explored in subsequent readings.

Surprisingly philosophical, this work begins in the inverse of how it ends, making it capable of being read in both directions and thus allowing time to flow forwards, backwards and in the round.  Repeating images, literary allusion and tongue in cheek humor make this a great read for all ages.