Not so long ago, I stumbled across a review by Steven Heller (from the NYT) about a book that sounded absolutely fascinating: Strange & Wonderful: An Informal Visual History of Manuscript Books and Albums.
From what I can gather, this book is an image-based collection of fantastical covers--old and new, photos and drawings, real and sublime. Apparently, it is the brainchild of New York City's Sanctuary Rare Books, which has a super stock of fine books and manuscripts. It also looks ridiculously cool.
Reading about this book and then browsing through the virtual Sanctuary Rare Books combined to remind me of one of my very favorite experiences in college: attending a special class at the University of Virginia's (very) Special Collections Library. I went because I was TA-ing a collaborative printmaking and poetry class--the idea was to see firsthand some exquisite first edition, antiquarian books as well as rare contemporary artist monographs, observing the pervasive careful craft, attention to detail, and brilliant layouts. This visit was especially inspiring because UVA's special collections had just been moved into a brand new building, which in a way really emphasized (to me, anyway) the tactile experience of books, of sinking into a comfortable chair, of plunging into that exhilaratingly quiet, cool, dry air one encounters in hermetically sealed libraries, and of timorously turning the pages touched by so many other inquisitive fingers.
All of this got me thinking about how much I love, love, love the tactile qualities of books....so strange and so wonderful indeed. And so while I believe technology like the Kindle and the iPad are fantastic concepts that will hopefully cut down on wasted paper and really, truly seem to satisfy a lot of people out there, I just don't quite know if I will ever truly be able to get on board with them. What do you think, friends? Am I being a complete luddite or do you agree that something must inevitably get lost in translation?
No comments:
Post a Comment