Abstract
In a lecture illustrated with 80 slides Mr. van der Wateren highlighted the development of book art as an important phenomenon in the making of books in the late 20th century. With examples from many countries he showed how books can be works of art in themselves and how this genre predominantly experiments with the traditional format of the book. He linked present examples with experiments earlier this century such as those of Sonia Delaunay and Mallarme. He also pointed out that anxiety about the demise of the book is misplaced since what is happening is the mutation of the printed book and that the book has a very long history before the invention of printing.
