Berm
Detroit-based publisher making works of visual narrative on landscape, craft & mythology.

European Distribution:

IDEA Books
idea@ideabooks.nl

US Bookstores:

William Stout (SF), Point Reyes Books (N CA), Peter Miller (SEA), Skylight (LA), Spoonbill (NYC), Periodicals (DET)

Past Events

DETROIT: Alex O’Dell in Conversation with Vince Anila
14 December 2025 @ Periodicals.


10,000 Landscapes 2025



Essays and Photography by Alex O’Dell (US)
Published by Berm

264 p / 21 x 27.4 cm / Soft Cover / English / ISBN 9798218812546 / Printed in Belgium / 1st Ed.

$45

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10,000 Landscapes
(published December 2025) is a personal study of gardens, stones, forests, and vernacular forms—where seeing becomes an act of attention.


Rooted in Zen Buddhist practice, 10,000 Landscapes explores how we meet landscape through attention and presence. Across a mapping of essays and original photographs, Alex O’Dell moves between memoir and field study—from arranging stones along a riverbank to imagining gardens that grow unattended, to viewing a forest through the eyes of a deer, to tracing the quiet intelligence of vernacular buildings. The visual essays fold observation with historical research, drawing landscape closer to lived experience. A postscript interview with Zen Buddhist scholar and former monk Mu Soeng provides a deeper layer of inquiry for the reader. 

From the very first sentence of the book — “How do we begin to see again when our daily lives demand our attention so intensely, no matter where we are?” — 10,000 Landscapes invites personal exploration into perception and place, even as we live our lives today.



Designer: Noah Beckwith
Editor: Diana Mehta  (Guenerica, Pen America)
Contributing Editor: Vince Anila (Stillpoint Detroit)
Lithography: Sebastiaan Hanekroot
Copyediting: Parker Menzimer
(Princeton Architectural Press)

About the Author: Alex O’Dell is a designer, writer, and photographer based in Detroit. He is a co-founder of the modular furniture brand Floyd.

First Edition, Printed Offset in Belgium, Open Spine
Copyright Office Berm LLC 2026