Kindle. Print-on-Demand. Amazon. The utterance of these words may send shivers down the spines of most bookshop owners, as recent years' surge in digital sales and alternative production means has put renewed squeeze on the business of selling books in a physical space. Responding to these new challenges is pivotal.
How long can the brick-and-mortar shop maintain its appeal? Is it a dying space or merely a fluctuating one? If the bookshop (as we have come to know it) is disintegrating, its current state should be documented, archived, preserved in our memories. This is the main incentive behind creating this book, that documents 10 bookshops in The Hague through photography and text.
The typesetting throughout the book mimics stacked books, otherwise the design is minimal and neutral, leaving room for the mere documenting. The cover features a sticker with the names of the featured bookshops, inviting the viewer to peel off the sticker and "enter" the space.
The project was supervised by Adriaan Mellegers