Building Stories

Instead of a traditional bound book, 'Building Stories' is published as a large boxed set containing 14 variously formatted printed materials. The package includes broadsheet newspapers, hardcover books, comic books, and fold-out pamphlets, allowing the reader to read the story in a completely non-linear order.

The graphic novel chronicles the lives of the residents of a three-story Chicago apartment building, focusing primarily on an amputee woman living on the ground floor. It deeply explores themes of loneliness, aging, failed dreams, and the profound melancholy of everyday domestic life.

Ware uses a muted, melancholic palette heavily reliant on blues, browns, and muted greens to match the somber, introspective tone of the narrative. The artwork is meticulously structured with geometric precision, using color blocking to guide the reader's eye through moments of quiet emotional despair.

The ambitious project was published by Pantheon Books in 2012. It took Ware over a decade to complete, as the individual components were originally serialized in various newspapers and literary magazines before being collected into the final box set.