Dating back to 1926, the yearly judging of the Dutch Best Verzorgde Boeken is the oldest in it's kind in Europe. Due to several interruptions, the selection of books published in 2012 is the 54th one.
The somewhat old-fashioned expression best verzorgd (best cared for) has never been dropped because of the fact that what the juries award in the first place, are books, not only their design. Each well-made book is a meeting between content and material, the result of a cooperation between a commissioner (mostly a publisher), a designer and the graphic industry. The role of the various participants is ever-changing.
Each year Dutch publishers, designers and printers submit over 300 books to be judged. The jury consists mostly of a publisher, two designers and a printer or binder, the fifth jury member being alternately a bookseller, a book historian, a museum curator or a writer on the subject.
The rules and criteria by which the jury is tied are kept to a minimum. The members of the jury are invited to select books that are excellent in their physical appearance and in doing this they are to keep an eye on the correlation between form and content. Thus each jury is free to develop their own emphasis, to decide which annual report or desk agenda is to be considered a book and which not, and to select certain books which it considers not to be missed in spite of certain shortcomings.
The selection of the year consists of 33 books at maximum. In the selection trade books are confronted with museum publications, corporate editions with private initiatives.
The books are being exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and several other places in the Netherlands and abroad. Recently the number of expositions tends to increase. In 2012 Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion started the traveling exhibition The Best of Dutch Book Design with last year's Best Dutch Book Designs as it's main part.
Besides that the selection is brought together each year in a bi-lingual book, The Best Dutch Book Designs / De Best Verzorgde Boeken. This catalogue presents the selected books in words – the judges reporting on each book separately - images and technical data. These ingredients are presented in a different way each year due to the catalogue being designed by a different graphic designer. The contribution of the Dutch graphic industry in the coming about of this catalogue is not to be overseen.
Initiator of the yearly competition is the Foundation De Best Verzorgde Boeken, in which branch organisations of the book trade, the designers and the graphic industry cooperate. The main sponsor is Antalis, one of the leading Dutch paper suppliers.
About the exhibition
Dates: 13 Jul - 4 Aug 2013
Venue: Garden City Space of Art
Opening Reception: 13 Jul 2013 Sat 14:30
Curator: Sasson Kung
Organizers: Tien Tien Circle Creative / Garden city publishers
Collaborators: Stichting De Best Verzorgde Boeken / Deaprtment of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government / Netherlands Trade & Investment Office / Ming-Ying Tsai Architects office / Onino design Associates
Opening Hour: 9:30-18:30 (Mon - Fri)；12:00-18:30(Sat - Sun)
Tel: 886-2-25319081
Add: No.6, Lane 72, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei City
Courtesy Garden City Space of Art
