Subscribe to the BrittonBritton newsletter! | Tell a friend about this page.

The History Book. On Moderna Museet 1958-2008. Front cover slip case (Photography Frederik Lieberath)

Finally: The History Book is written!

| Oct 30, 2008 | 2 comments

On commission by Moderna Museet, BrittonBritton has designed and produced The History Book. On Moderna Museet 1958-2008 (Moderna Museet/Steidl) — the great book published in celebration of the legendary museum's 50-year anniversary.

And so it was launched at last, with a big international symposium at Moderna Museet here in Stockholm on 17 and 18 October — The History Book. On Moderna Museet 1958-2008, this massive piece published in honor of the world famous museum's 50-year anniversary.

In stern competition, this project easily qualifies among the most complex ever executed here at BrittonBritton through all these years.

The museum’s daring and admirable ambition with the book is to penetrate the mass of legends, myths and fairy tails shrouding its magnificent history*, in pursuit of a deeper scientific knowledge of this history from a range of different perspectives. The book contains twelve scientific texts written by leading scholars at Sweden's most esteemed universities, complete with extensive notes, to say the least.

To further complicate matters, the book is interspersed by an "artistic intervention" by the famed Polish-British conceptual artist duo Marysia Lewandowska and Neil Cummings, initiated by the museum's director Lars Nittve.

Apart from design and production, BrittonBritton has also been responsible for the image material in the book. For this purpose, Claes Britton conducted a complete inventory of the museum's photographic archive, in search of previously unpublished images, with the ambition to give the book a new and exciting visual appearance.

"That was work I could have paid to do," says Claes Britton. "I grew up in this museum and I've followed it closely for all my life, so it was a truly emotional and fantastic journey for me personally — and what treasures there were there!"

The History Book is published in seperate Swedish and English language editions. The total volume, including the "artistic intervention", is 540 pages. The book is printed and distributed worldwide by the Steidl publishing house in Germany.

The History Book can be ordered through the Moderna Museet online book shop.

See a more extensive selection of samples from the book in our portfolio!

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the bookbinder has made the slip case for the book too tight, and therefore simply chopped the book off at the bottom, without our knowledge, much less consent. We deeply regret and apologize for this most unfortunate mistake.

* More than anything, the ambition with The History Book was to see beyond the museum's heroic and mythic sixties. Though the museum's legendary founding director Pontus Hultén, one of the greatest museum directors in history, appears in every chapter of the book, he has no chapter of his own. If you want to read Pontus' wondrous stories all the same, which you should, check out Claes Britton's frequently quoted interview with Pontus Hultén from 1997, based on more than 10 hours of interviewing, published in Stockholm New No. 5 (1998), in our text archive!

Comments

2009-03-24 skrev M
In my copy (I ordered it online), the bookbinder also left some loose pages in the book. When I received it, they were tucked in, almost like an afterthought. It is a lovely book but perhaps better quality control is in order. :(
2009-03-24 skrev Claes Britton
Dear M,

I’m very sorry to hear this and can only appologize — on behalf of the publisher. It’s the first book we’ve published with Steidl, and it was a very unusual experience for us, much like I’ve heard from several others. The thing is that the museum has a longstanding relationship with this publisher that is quite complicated, it seems. All production details were on hold to the very last minute. This is something we’ve never experienced before. We’re pleased with the print, but there was a number of production flaws, most grave of course the one with the slip case, which no doubt should have been more than good cause for the demand of a complete re-print. This, however, was not possible due to the delicate relationship with the printer/publisher. For many reasons, we cannot take responsibility for several factors that were simply out of our control. This is something that we’ve never experienced before. We’re used, of course, to taking full respoonsibility for all our productions.

Once again — sorry about this. WE hope that you can still enjoy the book.

Finally: The History Book is written!

Comments

Recent news