‘Neomodernist baroque architecture,’ is how Krijn de Koning describes his own work in an interview with journalist Edo Dijksterhuis. To a designer, making a book about an artist and his work is often the ultimate challenge – but one that leads to as many failures as successes. What is the best or most interesting way of presenting – or representing – art?

This book answers the question at a stroke, and it is just as effective as it is unusual. It is unusual in that it is not really a particularly beautiful book, so here being beautiful and being good do not go hand in hand. Above all, this is a good book because it shows us de Koning’s work in the best possible way. It is something of a diamond in the rough.

The neomodern baroque architecture in de Koning’s work is easily found and the characteristic de Koning colours come across very well thanks to the choice of paper. The whole book breathes the artist’s mentality and could almost be an integral part of one of his sculptures. Another important component is the choice of typeface, which is not unlike the art: not too modernist yet sufficiently individual to make that vital difference. Both the placing of the notes alongside the accompanying texts and the way the pictorial matter has been employed in the index clearly have an affinity with the artist’s work.