Long-time contributors and friends, the photograpy duo Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin approached Visionaire to create a project that would benefit the Blue School, the progressive primary school that their son, Charles Matadin, attends. Thus, FAIRYTALE was born. What better way to celebrate youthful imagination than referencing children’s books, the source of so many past issues? The resulting books, however, were decidedly sophisticated — fun for both kids and adults. Douglas Gordon collaborated with his son; James Franco photographed and wrote a ghost story; John Giorno shared a poem that accompanied Ugo Rondinone’s comical characters; and Björk, with illustrator Gabriela Fridriksdottir, created a sing-along book complete with a sound chip of her singing a cappella. Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin curated a cache of their vintage fashion photos and offered them up to illustrator Jo Ratcliffe, who painted dog, parrot, and puffin heads over the photos, creating a series of “animorphs,” much to the photographers’ delight. “We always love it when there is an extra layer on our work, be it collage or graphics,” they said. “That’s why we love working for magazines.” In their abstract and subversive spirit, the children’s books in FAIRYTALE echoed the creative, free-thinking mantra of the Blue School itself.