In the physically and chronologically smallest ephemeral narrative, one of the tenants storms out under-dressed into the snow, angry at her life.

Here he makes the format fit the form, as these stories would play havoc with the constraints of a uniform, ordered volume. The architectural precision, not only in his design of spaces but the layout of the very page, has always been the most recognizable aspect of his style.

In a way Ware’s works have always been “building” stories. Arriving not in the form of a bound volume, but instead in a matte-textured box containing “14 distinctively discrete books, booklets, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets”-all working in concert to tell stories of the tenants of a three-story apartment building in Chicago, it takes Ware’s approach to visual storytelling to a new level of game-changing.

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cyprus, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.Chris Ware’s “Building Stories” is a literal and figurative odd fit for the graphic novel section.

Building stories by chris ware