25 October 2023 press release

With “The ugly duckling of publishing? Books on Demand”, the German Museum of Books and Writing is presenting a selection of artistic and experimental Books-on-demand projects.

Print on demand is a production method that began revolutionising book culture in the 2000s. It combines cheaper and better digital printing processes with the possibilities of global trade. The result is a production process in which books are no longer reproduced for stock; instead, they are only printed when there is an actual need, i.e. "on demand". This ensures that even the smallest editions make a profit. On closer inspection, print on demand appears to be a typical, particularly meaningful symptom of a transitional period in media history.

The resulting technological developments have not only had a fundamental impact on book production and distribution processes but have also changed the content of the books themselves. While print-on-demand publications are criticised for compromising on quality with regard to their content and material (are books on demand the of the “the ugly duckling“ of the book industry?), they also open up opportunities for participation and experimentation in new areas of application and thought.

The exhibition is based on the collection assembled for the research project "Library of Artistic Print on Demand" (apod.li), which consists of specimen books on demand and samples from artistic subcultures. The exhibits selected from this collection, which encompasses more than 300 items, illustrate the impact of this technology and show how it has been explored in artistic terms

The diversity of the projects and prints is impressive, ranging from large-scale projects with over 7,400 volumes to tiny obscure conceptual print runs which have only produced single examples so far. It explores generative projects in which each book tells a unique story, and presents how printed books can serve as a cultural counterpart to the fleeting processes of digital cultures. The books in the exhibition engage with the book and its protagonists in a critical, experimental and exploratory manner and demonstrating the relevance and timeliness of the medium, which must be constantly questioned.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Annette Gilbert and Andreas Bülhoff, who developed the "Library of Artistic Print on Demand" as part of a project funded by the German Research Foundation between 2019 and 2022. The research project was a collaboration between the Freie Universität Berlin, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in München.

A publication on the "Library of Artistic Print on Demand" is to be released in the autumn of 2023 by the Leipzig-based publishing company Spector Books, which was awarded the Leipzig Gutenberg Prize for its work in 2023 and to which the German Museum of Books and Writing is currently devoting an exhibition (dnb.de/gutenbergpreis2023). Workshops and lectures have been planned to accompany the exhibition.

The ugly duckling of publishing? Books on Demand
Temporary exhibition at the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library
3 November 2023 to 18 February 2024
Opening: 2 November 2023, 19:00

Information: www.dnb.de/booksondemand

Background

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings. The Museum also pays close attention to issues relating to the future of media in our networked societies.

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