Gallery: A Genius of Book Design Creates a Tome With No Ink
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Irma Boom designed a book for the perfume Chanel No. 5. *Image: Jonathan Leijonhufvud*
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The airy white-paged book is totally ink free. *Image: Jonathan Leijonhufvud*
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One of Boom's favorite pages. *Image: Courtesy of Irma Boom*
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Each page is embossed. *Image: Jonathan Leijonhufvud*
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The book tells the story of Gabrielle Chanel and the making of Chanel No. 5. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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Boom designed each page with line drawings or small graphic-style dots. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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The book is 300 pages and 5 cm thick, a nod to the perfume's name. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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The pages were first designed on aluminum plates. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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Then embossed on an ink-less letterpress. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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They had to figure out how to bind the book without pressing it since that would ruin the embossing. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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The book is bound but not cut, which makes its edges uneven. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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Though Boom has infused her pages with smell in the past, she refused to do it for the Chanel book— "It would have been literal," she says. *Image: Galerie VIVID*
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A catalog containing all of Boom's work. *Image: Irma Boom*
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It's barely 2 inches tall. *Image: Irma Boom*
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This is a nod to her process. Boom often makes miniatures of her books before she makes the full size version. *Image: Irma Boom*
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Boom's *James Jennifer Georgina* is a 1200-page book written entirely in postcards. *Image: Irma Boom*
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*Sky Diary*. *Image: Irma Boom*
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Boom designed *Project Japan: Metabolism Talks*, a book by Rem Koolhaas. *Image: Irma Boom*
