Emil Zbinden could celebrate his hundredth birthday this year. For this reason, a new edition of the book is being released, which contains the 911 woodcuts that Emil Zbinden created for the Gotthelf edition of the Büchergilde Gutenberg and the stories by Loosli, arguably the most significant illustration oeuvre in Switzerland. Emil Zbinden meets Gotthelf's incomparable poetic power with extraordinarily fine, small-format images. Despite their small size, these miniatures crackle with the energy that the hard material demands from the cutting tool. The illustrator does not seek to merge with the author but instead stands as an attentive reader, interpreting the work in his own way. He knows the landscape and the people of the Emmental from personal experience. This volume is a wonderful, almost inexhaustible picture book.