Blooks

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Books exist as receptacles of information, but for many years people have adopted their format and appearance to create other objects or containers for an array of items. Such objects are referred to as?book-looks?? or?blooks,? a term coined by Mindell Dubansky, a preservation librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?s Thomas J. Watson Library who has over the years amassed hundreds of examples. A sample of her growing collection is now on view at the Grolier Club in the exhibition 'Blooks: The Art of Books that Aren?t.' The variety of blooks? both handmade and commercially manufactured, and constructed of all types of material? is remarkable and overwhelming, with some items dating as far back as the late 18th century. As you may expect, many of these creations take advantage of the format of a book to hide items of personal value in hollowed-out areas, perfect for camouflaging on a shelf. Children?s coin banks, for instance, hide behind misleading covers that market the vaults as encyclopedias. 00Exhibition: Grolier Club, NYC, USA (January 28 - March 12, 2016)