UN LIBRO ILLEGIBLE QUADRATO (AN UNREADABLE QUADRAT-PRINT). 1964. THE SIXTEENTH KWADRAAT-BLAD.

Hilversum: Hilversum Jong & Co, n.d (1964)
Outer printed and folded paper wrapper with texts in green that are in eight different languages – the complicated fold opens up to show a 25 x 25cm, unpaginated (36pp approx) and card covers artist’s book which has no text but each red paper page  internally is cut in different shapes and bound in string. The card covers are wrapped around by a dust-jacket with a die-cut diamond hole that allows the red card to be seen through it.

This is probably the most famous of the Kwadraat-Blad books – the 16th produced – a highly complicated binding job for any press. Munari’s unreadable books are a form of artist book that takes the form of a book but turns it into a sculpture – the obstructions put in the way of any reader taking the object away from its more usual function to something to be admired in itself.

This is very scarce item in any condition and the outer wrapping are almost always not in great condition. Here the outer pages have browning in areas, some tears along folds and some dog ears or creases on the pages. The inner booklet has a paper scuff near the die-cut hole in the dust-jacket – else is VG.

If you wish we can supply more detailed images of the condition issues but we have priced this to account for these flaws.