After being invited by designer Richard Niessen to contribute to the Palace of Typographic Masonry, Esther de Vries wondered: "Which aspect of graphic design is of specific value to me?"

As a graphic designer who mainly focuses on book design, it didn't take long before she started thinking about those books in Niessen's bookcase that serve as particular source of inspiration. They all have a certain quality that makes her lose herself in their pages, leading to new discoveries every time she picks them up.

Taking these particular books off the shelf, she was surprised how different, unique and surprising they all are. But nevertheless she feels they all have something in common: in each case, content and design are strongly intertwined – inseparable even. Niessen calls these books inextricable. This is how The Library of Inextricable Books was born.

To get a better picture of this category of books and to be able to look beyond her own bookcase Esther de Vries asked graphic designers Linda van Deursen, Catherine Guiral and Julia Born to react and extend this growing collection. And in those cases where these colleagues were involved with the the making of a book, to tell her how the book originated.

Texts in this volume are thus taken from interviews by de Vries with van Deursen, Guiral, and Born.

Designed by Esther de Vries

Published on the occasion of the exhibition of The Palace of Typographic Masonry at Graphic Days Torino, 2021

Softcover, 64 pages, b&w and full color images, 8.25 × 11.75 inches

ISBN: 978-9-08-213779-8