Casa do Design is opening an exhibition that reveals the history of publishing and the editors, illustrators and designers who were involved in the world of books in Portugal throughout the 20th century.
The exhibition Para Ser Eterno Basta Ser Um livro - Editorial e Design do livro em Portugal no século XX (To be a book is to be eternal — Editorial and book design in Portugal in the 20th century), open to the public at the Casa do Design in Matosinhos between 4 May and 27 October, offers visitors an immersive approach to books.
Books are fragile and delicate objects, artefacts made from paper whose fibres remain alive, ageing with the passage of time and gradually oxidising. Although they are always threatened by water and fire, books are also powerful, through their different uses, which highlight their different powers.
In this exhibition, the curators, Jorge Silva and José Bártolo, present the book as a design object. The format of the book and its design are not just support and form in relation to the content: they are themselves also content. Just as there are many possibilities for making a book, there are just as many possible universes that a book makes. And an exhibition about books also opens us up to a vast field of possibilities.
In this case, all the books we see in the exhibition are Portuguese editions. This exhibition introduces us to the most popular and commercial area of printed books published in Portugal in the 20th century. It does not include author's editions, artist's books or books that belong to artist's multiples. It is an exhibition made up mostly of published originals of books, with some elements of the process: drawings, models and final artwork; to these contents are added, as notes, documentary materials linked to the activity of publishers - mainly catalogues - and the trade associations of publishers and booksellers.
The aim is to meet books in their most common place and, as they might have been found in a bookshop, in the 1920s, 1940s or 1980s. The exhibition meanders between novels, novellas, one dictionary or another, poetry books, here and there a photography book or a catalogue. And if there are open books, in most cases we'll find closed books, questioning us through their covers - a meeting place between the book and painting, but also illustration and design.
To be a book is to be eternal — Editorial and book design in Portugal in the 20th century is an exhibition that is the result of a desire and an encounter. It aims to help visitors learn about the history of publishing and the editors, illustrators and designers who were actively involved in the world of books in Portugal throughout the 20th century.
This exhibition is also a reunion between the two curators, nine years after they also organised the exhibition Cólofon - 500 Portuguese Book Covers, which was held at the Quinta de Santiago Museum, also in Matosinhos. Their passion for books led the exhibition's curators to make these artefacts close and intimate, sparked an interest in collecting and caring for them and a desire to share this passion with others.
One way of looking prevails over many others: looking at a book as a design object leads to wanting to get to know it, dissecting it by paying attention to its shape and structure, the technical processes used in its production, the specificities of the use of typography, photography or illustration. We also pay attention to authorship (which is always authorship), the publishing label and the lives of the book, its context and history, its content and the form it takes.
Most of the books in this exhibition were produced before we were born and will last long beyond us. They waited for us, passing from hand to hand; breathing in the dust of books in bookshops or in private libraries that were dismantled at some point.
Through the books on display we have learnt about different circumstances, sensed economic circumstances and cultural values, editorial positions and historical changes.
The exhibition is divided into four themed spaces:
- Explosions ‘How to show the explosion, not the explosive device’ is the phrase that sets the tone for the first space. ‘It's as if we were putting together a book ourselves, experimenting with various approaches,’ explains curator José Bártolo.
- Collections Collections are a way of disseminating works, combined with a strategy to build reader loyalty. Collections were an invitation to continued purchases. Here we present many of the great collections published in the 20th century, such as the ‘RTP Books’.
- Themes The themes bring together books from different dates published in different political and social contexts. Visitors will find banned books, school books and books about wars, among many other themes.
- Anatomy of a book This centre, conceived by studio 0.itemzero, is dedicated to the design of books. The material, the core or the binding that make up the object itself.
