Book Review - The Art of Jusant: The Great Expedition
- The Artbook Collector
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
June 5th 2025
Jusant, the 2023 game from developer Don't Nod, gave players the control of a traveller and their mysterious companion on a vertical adventure up The Tower, using a climbing rope and few extra tricks to complete their epic journey. The world can now be explored again, this time through the early art and behind-the-scenes insights in the latest release from publisher Pix'n Love, The Art of Jusant: The Great Expedition.
The book was released in May of 2025 and a copy has now joined the collection, so I can dive into the book and give you my thoughts on this latest offering from the French publisher. Pix'n Love's last artbook, The Art of Dordogne, was released in 2024, which I enjoyed, so I was curious to see more from them. Like that book, this was also authored by Marine Macq and comes with text in both English and French as well.
Like all my reviews, I will go over the book with my thoughts on these five points; build quality, content, credits, use of space and value.
Build Quality
The book comes as a hardcover with 352 good quality gloss pages. It's a little smaller in dimensions than a lot of artbooks, measuring at just under 27cm x 22 cm, but still a good size. The landscape orientation was a good choice too, as a higher page count like this can be tough on the binding of a portrait book, so this is not a worry with The Art of Jusant. Overall, there isn't too much to say here, it's a great start with no complaints!
Content
As mentioned before, this book comes in both English and French, which is worth mentioning as the approach to the order of the contents can hit you hard for the first 100 pages. The reason for this is that it is frontloaded with the making of the game. The pages are text heavy, with sometimes just a single image or photo on a spread and at a quick glance looks like a lot to get through. However, as there are 2 languages being used side by side, you quickly realise that it's only a paragraph or two per page, so you do read through them much quicker than you might first expect.
This part of the book is all about the history and making of the game, with quotes from the team at Don't Nod too. It covers a lot in these chapters and you learn a good amount, including about how the game started, the early story ideas, worldbuilding, characters, the visual history, and the production methods. It also includes some concept art and screenshots of both the game and the production process. These first four chapters give fans a good look at what it took to create Jusant and the Art Director, Edouard Caplain, shares a lot too. An example of an early page can be seen below.
Placing this early on in the book isn't a common approach, many books will mix the history in with the art throughout, but like WipEout Futurism: The Graphic Archives, it works here. It's well written and packs a lot in, allowing the next 250 pages to focus on the art.
The rest of the book is split into chapters for the early art, the main character, Ballasts, Fauna and Flauna, then finally the 5 different levels of the game. This is where it becomes a much more traditional 'Art of' book, but given the large page count, you still get a full books worth of content. The early pages are almost like an added bonus for those wanting all the nerdy details and history of the game. It could have very much been called 'The Art and Making of Jusant' for this reason, but I do prefer the used title.
The art focused pages of the book shine the spotlight on the stunning visual work from the small team, including ideas and designs that were never used, which is always great to see. The wonderful scenery and designs of the game are a clear reflection of the talented people behind the art and this book gives them the showcase they deserve. From sketches, to full colour concepts and 3D created art, players won't be disappointed at what is included. The print quality here is also superb, the colours are vibrant and allows the book to highlight the different tones and moods that you get from playing the game itself.
The art also comes with descriptions and the thoughts behind them, as well as why they went with some designs over others. The chapter for the character, Ballasts and wildlife are full of interesting and charming designs, some stuff so good you wish it was in the game, so it was nice to see it here despite not making the cut.
The last five chapters are based on each section of the game and I like this a lot. The ascent in Jusant takes you through different biomes, all very distinct in their look and colour palettes, so having them split in the same way here emphasises that approach. Some of the pieces here are highlights for me personally, I really like the interesting designs, use of colour, and scale created in the art across all of the very different environment types. The announcement of this book already had me curious, but now I can definitely see why this game was chosen to get the artbook treatment.
Each of the chapters based on the five levels of the game end on an interview with a member of the team too. Here you learn about their history, role and experience working on the game. This includes Cinematic Director Mathieu Beaudelin and concept artist Andrey Surnov, but also the lead animator, composer and technical artist for Jusant. Interviews in this way are also uncommon, further highlighting that this book isn't focused just on the art, but all aspects of development and the people that worked hard to bring it to life.
Credits
The art throughout is credited on the page as you can see in the preview photos. With the team being smaller for the studio, it only makes it easier to give them they credit they deserve, so I'm happy to see it here. Another short and sweet part of this review, as it is the best way to do it!
Use of Space
As mentioned, the early part of the book is text heavy, which may not be to the liking of everyone, so is very much a matter of preference. I like it here myself and the text isn't so small that it's like reading a novel. It's done as good sized chunks and the 2 languages are well separated and distinguishable, as the French is slightly bolder.
The pages later on are well designed too, with little wasted space, good placement of the text and a mix of image sizes. Art that crosses the centre fold can sometimes be problematic due to image loss, but there is no problem with that here. Overall then, The Art of Jusant presents the art and insights very well.
Value
This release, like the previous ones from Pix'n Love, is sold directly from their website in euros. It is listed for €44.90, around £38/ $52, and is about the standard price for an artbook, so no problem here at all for what you get. The one issue you will find with pricing though is the shipping. Although not the fault of Pix'n Love themselves, shipping has become very expensive and so this should be considered if you are outside of France. Despite being a short distance away here in the UK, shipping added on around 50% to the overall price. I'm also aware to the US it's around €35, so just over an additional 75% on top. If interested in the book, be sure to add it to your backet on their site (found at the bottom of the page), so you can see the cost to deliver it.
Verdict
The Art of Jusant: The Great Expedition delivers deep insights and fantastic artwork, presented in a well designed book. Fans get the best of both in this release, the written story of how the game was made and a visual history of its creation through its concept art. Though you may have to pay the extra to get the book to where you are, if you enjoyed the game and want more from its world, you won't be disappointed.
Having recently made the ascent up The Tower again myself, I can say that this is the perfect companion to the game and makes me appreciate it even more. I hope that Don't Nod consider working on future artbooks like this, it's a welcome addition to the collection and more like this would certainly make their way here too.
If you are interested in ordering The Art of Jusant: The Great Expedition for your own collection, you can order it from Pix'n Love's website here;
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