The jury was enthusiastic about these publications with their contemporary design: the English-language commercial edition and the Dutch-language De Roos edition, for which the makers avoided the pitfall of getting bogged down in the idiom of lettering artist Helmut Salden (1910-1996). Both books find an attractive, classic way to reflect Salden’s hand-made, playful work. An oeuvre that is real ‘eye candy’, particularly when presented in such a sound way.

We have seen several examples of the flatbook binding, but here the print on the spine really is fantastically executed. The first and last pages of the book block, containing the explanatory text, are in a colour that immediately evokes associations with old filing cards. This association is reinforced when leafing through the heavy pages with their solid, stiff feel. Simple yet highly effective.

It was not entirely clear to the jury why the commercial edition and the bibliophile De Roos edition were submitted as a series. The ‘deluxe’ edition, the typesetting of which in the lovely Salden Roman we found a little more charming than that of the English-language version, has an extra photo or two and a translation, but otherwise we could spot no differences in production. It could even be argued that it shows a lack of generosity to deny the commercial version such extras. Apart from the great matching of the two ‘archival’ colours, this does not constitute a pair.