Om betydelsen av böckers utseende : det svenska förlagsbandets framväxt och etablering under perioden 1840–1914 med särskild hänsyn till dekorerade klotband : en studie av bokbandens formgivning, teknik och relation till frågor om modernitet och materiell

Sammanfattning: This study traces the history of publishers’ cloth-bindings in Sweden, and places them in relation to the emergence of modernity. The interaction between techno-logy, economics and aesthetics is central to the analysis, in which a sociological approach is combined with per-spectives of book history and material culture studies. • The study consists of two parts: Book culture in transit-ion, mainly concerned with aspects linked to the book market, and Modernity and material culture, which exam-ines the design of clothbindings and their cultural context. • Chapter 1, Swedish 19th century book trade, addresses the book trade from the early 19th century to WW1 and devotes particular attention to the pivotal shift in the history of books when publishers took over the task of furnishing their books with bindings. Chapter 2, The technical shift, provides an overview of the production of clothbindings, historical circumstances and pre-requisite conditions. It also deals with the influence of industrialization on social factors. Chapter 3, The emerg-ence of modern book binding practise, delineates the trends of the different types of publishers’ bindings with the aid of a statistical survey. Chapter 4, The title-specific binding and the art of reproducing the unique, explores the development of bindings designed for a specific title. Their emergence is seen in light of the general development from craft society to industrial society, whereof the significance of individualism increased at the same rate as the mass production of identical objects. Chapter 5, Clothbindings, their design and relation to modern consumer society, looks at the design of covers and places it in relation to other objects and to interior decoration. Chapter 6, In the company of books, examines the subjective dimension of the book, partly through photographs, paint-ings and literature, and partly by discussing how changes to the book influenced the ways in which literature was perceived. • The theoretical basis is the idea that all phenomena are interrelated and that meaning evolves through the interaction between these phenomena, including material objects. Modernity and interrelated issues of individualism constitute a pervading theme. These phenomena are primarily discussed in relation to the works of Charles Taylor and Anthony Giddens. • The dissertation shows: (1) Publishers’ bindings were established in the 1870’s in Sweden as an effect of the breakthrough of industrialization and modernity. (2) Decorated clothbindings played an important role in the book market as a vehicle for phenomena characteristic to modernity. (3) Clothbindings contributed to the professionalization of publishing. (4) Like other material objects, bookbindings have an ability to act socially; their materiality and form effect meaning.