The Book as Illusion. Hiding Places, Pseudolibraries, Art Objects

We are so accustomed to the ubiquity and ordinariness of the book that we are not surprised when various objects take the form of books. The author suggests looking more closely at how a person has learned to value not... so much the content of a book as its external appearance, turning books into other objects, creating book props, decorating interiors with fakes, and using images of books in painting.

Before us is an alternative history of book culture, spanning over five hundred years. With the invention of the printing press, the book ceases to be a sacredly kept, highly revered object. Now it is an anti-relic, and sometimes a symbol of the impotence of reason. Society begins to particularly value the decorative function, and thus the paper book becomes an art object or part of it.