Tine van Wel

I swear I use no art at all

112 pp / 220 x 270 mm / paperback / english
category: Art and Design Books, Monographs
publisher: 010 Publishers
year: 2010
printer: Lecturis

10 years, 100 books, 18,788 pages of book design by Joost Grootens

This book displays and dissects the career and design motives of graphic designer Joost Grootens. In systematic and neutral fashion it charts the first hundred books designed by Grootens over the past ten years. In the first section, ’10 years’, Grootens uses timelines, lists and graphs to map the course of his career as a designer, the people he worked with and the places where the work took place. In ’100 books’, the designer dissects his book designs. He details the grids, formats, paper stocks, colours and typefaces, and charts the books’ structures and compositions. ‘18,788 pages’ shows at actual size a selection of spreads from books designed by Grootens, including the internationally acclaimed atlases. In the text ’I swear I use no art at all’ Joost Grootens gives a personal account of making books and the ideas behind his designs.

The research for this book was made possible by the generous support of the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.

This book was made possible through contributions from Lecturis, Garda Cartiere and Patist.

[Reproduction photography by Peter Cox]