Fully Booked: Cover Art & Design for Books [Hardcover]

Cultural commentators frequently write about the potential decline of books in the digital age and they might be right as far as literature is concerned. The arrival of the Sony Reader, Amazon's Kindle and other electronic readers could mean that today's young grow up reading literature on anything other than paper. Perhaps not so easy to present visual books in an electronic format but I expect it will come but what can't be digitized is the feel of a book: the weight, texture of quality paper, pictures printed in four color with a varnish fifth printing, binding and even the aroma gives a bound book something special. Can you hear them say "Open me!"

The editors of Fully Booked like to create the impression that books are alive and well though I thought the message was rather diluted because so many of the wonderful examples shown exist as just one copy. These artists and designers have used the medium of bound paper to create works of Art rather than beautiful examples of art run of in hundreds or thousands of copies and available to a wide audience.

Whether it's one copy or thousands there is no doubt that the pages display some quite amazing and fascinating creativity on paper. Is there one example that sums it all up? For me that would be `Your Home' by Olafur Eliasson, a nine hundred page oversize book that features various cross-sections of a house which have been laser cut into the pages so that you physically pass through the building as the pages are turned.

Other intriguing books include Susanna Berkenheger's `Time for the Bomb' which has large die-cut holes punched through many of its two hundred pages though it does seem that these eliminate lots of text. Robert The creates art by using books as objects like a gun shape stamped out from a novel, Jason Salavon cleverly uses an IKEA 2007 catalogue minus the photos and text so all that is left are 374 pages of the background color panels (yours for $500) Tank Books had the neat idea of publishing classics that fit inside flip-top cartons with clever packaging design that combines the author and title in cigarette-box style graphics.

Fully Booked is a visual feast of one edition books and others published in many copies but it is unfortunate that the book's production takes on some of the experimental design that is apparent in many of the titles illustrated. For a start the book is printed in two sections, look through the first 141 pages and then you'll have to turn the book over to look at the other 121 pages. I can't see any reason for this other than designer whimsy! There are two contributor essays filling sixteen pages throughout the book, none of them have page numbers even though one essay refers to another by page number. The illustrations are keyed to the captions with numerals set a five point light face so you'll have problems reading these in a domestic lighting environment. The middle of the book has a ten page designer index and oddly the book's imprint is part of this. All of this suggests to me that the publishers seem rather unprofessional in the way they present information to book buyers.

Apart from the lapse in some of the editorial production (so four stars) Fully Booked will amaze anyone interested in contemporary book creativity.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Like a collection of college graphic design projects, this book is a mixed, and ultimately useless, bag of tricks. Good design incorporates novelty as an element, but novelty is not the ultimate goal of design. Many of these book ideas are witty and applicable to modern printing processes. Most are simply gimmicks that are as functional as DuChamps' urinal -- singular artworks that stimulate thought, but are in no way real books. It's mostly more of the useless crap taught in art schools that has to be unlearned on real jobs, and is hideously expensive to produce on any commercial level. Book design is a big, complicated, fascinating topic, and this book contains some interesting pieces, surrounded by a lot of conceptual hogwash that will only ever be seen in collections like this, not as real books in a store.

A beautiful product of design and creativity. A very inspiring book for any book maker, designer, or artist. Great contemporary samples.