2025 Just Enschedé Salon

DATE: Thursday 18 December 2025

TIME: 15:00 - 17:00 hrs

LOCATION: Allard Pierson, Oude Turfmarkt 127, Amsterdam

LANGUAGE: English

Free entrance but please Register

Unconventional books that stand out in terms of design and technique. How are they created? Graphic (book) designers Eva van der Schans, Jan Pieter Karper, and Doğa Gönüllü discuss this topic. Irene van Renswoude, professor of Manuscripts and Cultural History (UvA), provides historical examples of unconventional manuscripts.

Book design – and De Best Verzorgde Boeken (The Best Dutch Book Designs) – is about the combination of design, production technique, and publishing. When a publisher, designer, and production team work really well together, it can result in extraordinary books and sometimes (technical) innovations, both now and in the past. The link between the past and the present is established in this Salon, because the Allard Pierson collection contains both historical and contemporary books. The Best Dutch Book Designs, for example, have been included in the collection for decades. Zooming in on the role of technology in the design and production process forms the connecting link between the past and the present.

Graphic designers Eva van der Schans, Jan Pieter Karper, and Doğa Gönüllü will discuss their design practice, and Professor Irene van Renswoude will talk about manuscripts. Kylièn Bergh, a fellow at the Wim Crouwel Institute, will moderate the discussion.

Program: 15:00 p.m. – 16:00 p.m.

Drinks: 16:00 p.m. – 17:00 p.m.

‘BOOKMAKING UNCOVERED – the Just Enschedé Salon’ is a collaboration between Allard Pierson, the Wim Crouwel Institute, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Book Studies program at the University of Amsterdam. 'Bookmaking Uncovered – the Just Enschedé Salon' is part of The Best Dutch Book Designs, an exhibition that can still be visited at the Stedelijk Museum (until January 4, 2026). The Salon is an annual substantive discussion on current themes in Dutch book design.