Beyond Binary book / reprint

Beyond Binary book

The «Beyond Binary» photobook is sold out. After just 2 months, the first edition was completely sold out at the publisher Kettler at the end of November 2025.

This is a success — and a risk at the same time. The book is currently unavailable. Without a reprint, it will completely disappear from bookstores, libraries, and public discourse, and with it, the visibility of non-binary realities that the book aims to create.

Topics surrounding queer gender identities beyond binary categories are already underrepresented. When books disappear, perspectives disappear. Visibility requires a physical presence in bookstores, exhibitions, and teaching.

Photobooks are expensive to produce and need to be cross-financed. That’s why I’m starting this crowdfunding campaign – to make «Beyond Binary» available and visible again.

The overwhelming demand for the first edition showed that this book is needed. Now it’s about keeping the book available. By pre-ordering, you secure a copy of the reprint – and help keep this topic in the public eye! Thank you!

My passion project «beyond the gender binary»!

The photo book «Beyond Binary» takes you on a journey into a utopia of gender diversity. It’s about the visibility and self-empowerment of people with trans* non-binary gender identities across multiple generations.

«Beyond Binary» makes intersectional queer realities visible and shares knowledge, strength, courage, and guidance.

The book is a chorus of many voices from different generations, backgrounds, and identities, sharing how gender identities can be experienced, lived, questioned, and reimagined beyond binary boundaries.

I spent over 3 years portraying and collecting the wonderful voices of more than 60 people from Germany & Switzerland. These stories deserve a greater visibility than what we were able to achieve in two months.

The people in «Beyond Binary» range in age from 15 to 72 years. They demonstrate that gender is an infinite spectrum, on which «male» and «female» are merely two points. In addition to the portraits, the protagonists offer us profound, personal and unfiltered insights into their diverse realities and emotional states through handwritten letters. These include not only gender diversity but also topics such as neurodiversity, ableism, racism, polyamorous family structures, parenthood, aging, trauma, and discrimination— as well as questions of freedom and self-determination.

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EVENTS:

So far, the first book release, featuring an exhibition and reading by the protagonists, was a great success in October 2025 at JosFritz Café in Freiburg.

-> The next book release and crowdfunding event, including an exhibition and reading, will take place on January 24th and 25th, 2026 at MARS art space in Frankfurt.

-> Further readings and exhibitions are also planned in Switzerland.

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REVIEWS OF THE BOOK:

«Jeannette Petri’s photobook is a gender utopia you can flip through, in which non-binary and trans people confidently take center stage. In desperate times like these, it’s an aesthetic ’Fuck You’ to the system.» — Missy Magazine / 01/2026

«Jeannette Petri portrays individuals caught between fighting spirit and poetry, who have seized the opportunity to show themselves authentically and vulnerably, proving that truly being seen is the greatest art.» — Photonews / Avan Amir Weis / 09/2025

«Beyond Binary» is more than a photo book. It’s a document, a manifesto, and a tender homage to the diversity within diversity. It powerfully demonstrates that non-binary identities are not a fringe phenomenon, but rather an integral part of social reality. Especially in times when queer people—particularly trans and non-binary individuals—are increasingly becoming targets of right-wing attacks, this publication sends an important message: Visibility is political. — Queer.de / Marvin Wittiber / 10/2025 ………………………………………………..

THE BOOK: softcover with elastic binding / 21 x 28 cm / 160 pages total / 120 pages of photography & 40 pages of text (bilingual) / paper: 150 g / offset print

• with a text essay by Luca Mael Milsch (german/english)
• gender glossary by Valo Christiansen (german/english)
• foreword by Jeannette Petri (german/english)
• edited by Valo Christiansen and translated into english by Nita Tyndall
• designed by Lea Szramek 1.) 1st edition published September 19, 2025 by Kettler Verlag 2.) eprint available from March 2026 by Kettler Verlag

Your support for queer visibility!

WHO IS «BEYOND BINARY» FOR?

• queer, non-binary, trans, inter, gender-nonconforming, and questioning people
• queer communities, especially those seeking intersectional representation and role models
• people of all ages who reflect on and explore language, identity, and visibility
• allies who want to understand, learn, and support (caregivers, parents, siblings, children, family, friends)
• education and culture: teachers, students, activists, libraries
• people who work with power, norms, and visibility (art, media, science)
• people interested in great photography and graphic design!

FOR EVERYONE WHO: - needs visibility / desires empowerment through real stories / seeks access to knowledge, experience, and role models / is interested in discourse, language, and social change / is passionate about photography, graphic design, and book art INTERSECTIONALLY! ……………………………………………….

If the campaign is successful, the book can be reprinted, ensuring that the topic of trans* non-binary identities doesn’t fade into invisibility! And the cherry on top: the reprint will feature a new cover, while the rest remains the same.

I need the amount of money for the printing costs, the shipping, and the crowdfunding and transaction fees and taxes.

The publisher is providing structural support for the project – however, the reprint using offset printing at Kettler Printing itself can only be realized with joint funding. The costs for the graphic design, authors, editing, and translations were already covered by the first edition.

The reprint can be shipped in march. It’s important to me that the book remains affordable, and your support will help with that.

I sincerely thank everyone who donated such wonderful rewards for this crowdfunding campaign! Most of you are also part of the project, thank you all! And I’d like to thank in advance all the lovely people who are supporting this crowdfunding campaign so that we can move into the next round – in 2026 – with greater visibility for queer identities!

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Many thanks again to the supporters of the first edition:

• Frauenreferat Frankfurt
• Hessische Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur
• Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau / Gender & Diversity
• all the wonderful people who participated in the first crowdfunding campaign!

All other costs, including the approximately 60 photoshoots (including travel expenses), post-production, editing, managing the crowdfunding campaign, shipping the books, etc. are being covered by me personally.