[Image by Heterotype]
Unexpected is a good word to describe the work of legendary Dutch book designer Irma Boom. That’s because nothing about her work or the materials that she uses, has anything to do with the conventional.
“It’s all about making mistakes,” says Boom talking about her work and her creative process in this film by DutchDFA, adding, “Perhaps, each book I make is a mistake I want to correct with my next book.”
And what delightful mistakes. Creator of 250 books, 50 of which are featured permanently at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Boom once made a 2136 page, eight pound Think Book, without page numbers or an index for coal company SHV, which was five years in the making and went on to become “an international icon for Dutch design.”
Her book for American textile designer Sheila Hicks - ‘Weaving as Metaphor’- in keeping with the subject of the book- had a textured blank cover (which Boom confesses was ‘a headache for the publisher’) and frayed edges. It went on to win the award for the ‘Most beautiful book in the world”, at the Leipzig Book Fair. The perfectionist that she is, Boom creates miniature prototypes of her actual book before they go into printing so that she can judge the structure of the book. Interestingly, the folks at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) asked her if they could display the miniatures as well in their collection but that’s not likely to happen soon, says Boom, adding that they can get them when she’s dead.
In this fascinating video, Boom reveals why she finds handmade books hideous and why sometimes she is in a better position to curate an artist’s work through a book by combining images that the artist would never combine himself.
Watch Irma Boom talk about her craft on stage at the 2011 Designyatra to be held from 9th to 10th September at the Grand Hyatt, Goa.
