posted on 31 Jul 2015

A Book of Books  by Abelardo Morell

This is a beautiful book of luminous black and white photographs that present the book in all it's magnificent forms. Abelardo Morell, a photographer who understands that books are visceral physical, fetishistic objects, zooms in close; he deconstructs them; he creates surrealist dreams; he even mangles and destroys them. But the paper and cloth of the book always remains recognisable and tangible. The book itself is a superb creation - big, bold and with photographs printed on rich and sumptuous paper. An object of desire that is itself a homage to the object of desire.

The book has the added bonus of an essay by Nicholson Baker which forms the preface and could almost be a prose poem in its own right. The book is produced by Bulfinch Press and was first published in 2002. I advise you to try and get a copy if you love books as objects.