The novel, from bestselling American author Jonathan Safran Foer, is an entirely new story cut from the pages of Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles.

Featuring a different die-cut on every page, the 285pp Tree of Codes was initially deemed impossible to make by printers and finishers.

Visual Editions co-founder Anna Gerber said she had initially hoped to produce the book in the UK. However, she was repeatedly told the project was not feasible.

Working with the book's London-based designer, the Sara de Bondt studio, Gerber eventually assembled a pan-European production team that, after a year's prototyping, was able to solve the conundrum.

"The binding was one of the biggest problems, because it was difficult to feed the [die-cut] pages without ripping the cuts," said Gerber. "It was important to all of us that the stock should feel familiar and be as close to a normal book as possible, so we didn’t want anything too heavy."

The text of the original book, The Street of Crocodiles, was printed by Belgian printer Die Keure, while the die-cutting was done by Cachet in the Netherlands.

Belgian hand finisher Beschutte Werkplaats Ryhove and Dutch binder Hexspoor were then responsible for producing the finished text of Tree of Codes.

Visual Editions plans to publish another six titles that make use of "visual writing" over the next 12 months, including a second title with Jonathan Safran Foer.

"Our next book will be a book in a box," said Berger. "It’s actually a re-issue of the very first book in a box, called Composition No.1."

Tree of Codes is priced at £25 and will be published on 15 November. Copies can be pre-ordered from Visual Editions website www.visual-editions.com.