The Book of Books: 500 Years of Graphic Innovation - Hardcover

'A truly splendid documentation and illustration of graphic design history ... Really recommended' - DesignIsFine.org 'Immaculate photographs and printed texts - most of them open to full spread - beckon the reader to consider each work as physical artifact, as graphic construction, and as fully viewable content' - Eye Magazine 'A bibliophile's dream' - Creative Review

The book has been the number one information carrier for many centuries; even in the digital age, books continue to sell and continue to be objects of desire. The Book of Books describes and, above all, demonstrates the visual history of the printed book, with graphic milestones and other surprising finds drawn from the University of Amsterdam’s Special Collections Library, one of the greatest libraries in the world. It is a superbly illustrated celebration of those printers, publishers and graphic designers who have extended the boundaries of their profession both aesthetically and technically, always to stunning effect.

Table of Contents

Introduction · The Hand-Press Period, 1450–1800: The Spread of Printing · Decoration and Illustration · Italian and French Book Design · Printing in the Low Countries · Baskerville, Bodoni, Didot · The Machine-Press Period, 1800–now: Printing on Stone: Lithography · The Photobook · Private Presses and New Traditionalism · Avant-garde Swiss Typography · The Designer as Author