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DESCRIPTION: The exhibition B.O.O.K. The Contemporary Book and its Model offers a selection of published books and their threedimensional models. Books and models appear together in this exhibition to highlight different manners in which designers have re-interpreted the medium book, given the specific content they deal with. Book models are an important part of book production nowadays, especially when the traditional book form is challenged and consequently transformed according to specific aesthetic purposes or functional use. With this, the exhibition aims to cast light on the medium as form and its conceptual development. Designers involved in the show are commonly active and fundamental voices in constructing ‘story-telling’ as visual representation of ideas. That said, designer’s interdisciplinary expertise would also be evidenced by their involvement as ‘editors’ and/or co-authors of their book proposals. 

ON THE EXHIBITION-INSTALLATION CONCEPT: This is an exhibition that concentrates on the book as a concept and the book as a medium. In this scenario, both, final design outcomes as well as its prototyping processes are particularly meaningful. The installation re-enacts the process of designing, i.e., the way a book page layout is designed. Therefore, all elements in the exhibition design refer to page and layout hierarchy and composition in the installation space. All books and its book prototypes are exhibited as if they would be part of a layout of a large book page. The table that presents the books exhibited — which was custom made for this exhibition — is shaped as a large unfolded sheet of paper or brochure that appears almost floating in the air. The low table (300 mm high) hides its base and stresses the feeling of a ‘flying carpet’ structure. These features empower the audience-reader, who can appreciate the exhibits at glance and with ease from above while enjoying a bird’s eye view. The textual information in the exhibitioninstallation appears as ‘footnote’ to the main structure in the exhibition space. 

THE AUDIENCE-READER AS A CO-CREATOR AGENT IN B.O.O.K. EXHIBITION DESIGN: Reading is commonly a personal activity, and reading habits have mainly determined the shape of a book as we know it. The audience-reader contributes to re-arrange the books in the table-page layout with their reading, browsing and general bodily interactions. In this manner, the audience-reader is considered as an active co-creator and as an important collaborator in the re-design of the exhibition space. 

ON THE RECYCLABLE STOOLS FOR THE INSTALLATION B.O.O.K.:Recycled old books have been placed on stacks to serve as stools. In this manner they visually relate to all book models/prototypes shown in the exhibition B.O.O.K. 

BASIC OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE 

The exhibition-installation invites to appreciate and ‘read’ books and its models dissected and exposed to the public on a sort of ‘operation table’. Since a book model is not a finished book, but a test of what a book intends to be, the ‘model’ is seen in a process of ‘becoming a book’, emphasizing its relation to the history of book design concept development, process, prototyping and outcome.