Here an academic thesis has been upgraded to a full-to-bursting designer monograph, the candidate’s ceremonial assistants being a researching designer and a designing designer. An unbroken stream of images takes us back to the second half of the last century, when the computer was already casting its long shadow ahead of it but with patient persistence the protagonist still had to cobble this new language of imagery together.

Even the panel member who had already more than once made his views felt on the subject of image overkill was instantly won over to Jurriaan Schrofer. On every spread you can sense the considered dedication with which the images have been arranged. This is underlain by a decision that injects an undertone of calm into the book: the whole of the main text is printed on pages devoted entirely to it, without being chopped up.

And as the cherry on the cake, the Schrofer text reversed out on green (red in the English edition), with which the inside of the cover is decorated, runs on in the spine when you hold it open. ‘A wonderful lucky dip.’