Absolutely bananas! In a new book, 100 artists celebrate the fruit basket’s favourite class clown

No other fruit has quite the same comic or artistic standing as the humble banana. Throughout history we’ve seen its role mutate between comic device, musical icon, and a stark commentator of capitalism – all the while playing its lifelong role as the fruitbasket’s favourite class clown.

“When we first began talking about a banana book, we were intrigued by how spontaneously ideas emerged, one goofy idea came after another,” says John Schulisch, one half of Studio Trikken. This gave the Swedish duo the motivation to create an entire book of banana imagery, independently without any financial backing.

Banana Art Book does exactly what it says, featuring over 100 banana artworks created by artists, designers and illustrators. “We wanted every page to be different, so we aimed for a variety in both style, technique and type of participant,” says John. Alongside the images is a foreword by Ritupriya Basu, a creative essay by Heejae Kim, and interviews with select atists – “192 pages of joyful banana energy!”

Out of all the fruits, why bananas? “It has the ability to be so many things, and convey so many different meanings,” says Studio Trikken’s other half, Johan Elmehag. “The form is quirky, the colour is happy and cartoon characters slip on them… In this book the fruit is both a clown, an accountant and a dictator all at once. It showed us that when 100 people respond to the same brief you get so much more than the stereotypical.”

The brief for the artists was open. “We put our full trust in the participants,” says John. “This is reflected in the book, you can feel the different energy and responses to the task throughout. There’s a certain playfulness to the work, a sense of ease and creative freedom.”

For the design of the book, they decided to keep it simple. To avoid falling into old ideas on the subject, they decided to allude to the content in the subtle details. For example the book is set in MNKY Type’s Banana Grotesk, the index is called ‘Yellow Pages’ and on certain pages the text curves like a banana. “We also made a little freight box to send the book in, which is inspired by banana boxes,” Johan adds.

In the end the book was all about encouraging a sense of play – for themselves, the participants, and those who encounter the finished book. “Even if we like strict design with an elegant and intellectual approach we are also drawn to the funky and banal,” Johan ends. “There is a huge anxiety in the search for the perfect, so every now and then we like to give that perfectionism the middle finger.”