Over a period of ten years photographer Wijnanda Deroo followed the progress of the renovation of the Rijksmuseum. Her photos are gathered together in the book Rijks Museum.

Those wishing to follow the chronology have resort to spreads of thumbnail images set out at intervals through the book. These are consistently followed by a fold-out of a photograph taken in 2013, when the work of getting the museum’s rooms ready for opening was in full swing. In between we see Deroo’s photographs, in no particular chronological order, one to a page, all in landscape format, all identically placed, arranged by the designer according to colour, volume and light. First-class reproduction and printing on matt white paper.

The finishing is something special. Before folding, the sheets were cut to size at the page edges. When it was time to trim the book block the fore-edge was left as it was. The result is that the top and bottom edges are sharply neat while the fore-edge has a contrasting vivacity.

The cover – lovely thin boards – projects only minimally beyond the edges. At the front, only the title: that is, as much of the title as is needed to avoid any misunderstanding regarding the contents. Every one of these tricks testifies to controlled individuality. They effectively banish the pomposity that always lurks at the reopening of national treasure houses.