Bint photoBooks on INTernet: OOG / EYE Rotterdam Eye Hospital Graphic Design Irma Boom Company Photography

From the Stiftung Buchkunst award citation:

What can be more important to us than our eyes – our ability to see? The exterior of this intensely and excitingly composed book with its red matrix dots together with the Dutch word OOG creates the strong impression of a face. Its interior presents photographs of the building and of the patients documenting everyday life in the clinic. The oldest rendition of an eye, a drawing by Hunayn Ibn Ishag from the year 850, as well as portraits from today – magical pictures – join with the text to leave a convincing and powerful impression from beginning to end. Everything is placed within the format with sensitivity and a good sense of rhythm.

Eye Hospital wins International Book Prize

Assessing Quality of Care appears to be rather complex. In other fields it is not so difficult. After receiving recognition from the world of architecture by being nominated for the National Prize for Architecture and the NVTG Building Award (for which a winner is still to be chosen) the Rotterdam Eye Hospital received international recognition for the book OOG/EYE as being one of the best designed books in the world!

The International Book Jury “Schönste Bücher aus aller Welt” in Leipzig awarded the bronze medal to the book OOG/EYE, a publication on and about the newly-renovated Rotterdam Eye Hospital. The book was designed by Irma Boom, book designer from Amsterdam and compilated and edited by Ineke van Ginneke, art historian from Amsterdam. The international jury chose from a selection of The Best Book Designs from more than 30 countries.

The Best Books 2006 are on view in the Stedelijk Museum CS in Amsterdam. They will also be on view in the Museum Meermanno in The Hague and at the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Further expositions for here and abroad are in preparation. Besides Frankfurt and Leipzig , the books will also be exhibited in the MOMA (New York ) and in other cities throughout the world.

The new interior and the art in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital are designed to reduce fear in patients. Many people with an eye disorder are afraid of becoming blind.

Fear reduction can be attained by being more transparent. So, the previously dark interior garden now has a glass dome and the floor levels have been opened up. Patients and those accompanying them can now watch ‘live' operations on a television screen while they are waiting. All the art is related to seeing, looking and sight. There are relevant photographs and paintings hanging on the walls but also optical-illusion games and proverbs, all containing the word ‘eye'.

Hospitals are often considered as places to be avoided as much as possible. The Eye Hospital uses art as a way of reducing patients' fears but it is also there to invite the interest of people just passing through. During the Rotterdam Museum Night, people were invited to come and look around the Eye Hospital . 700 visitors took advantage of the invitation.

The Eye Hospital has now started the project ‘Visible Signs', where art outside the walls of The Eye Hospital serves as signposting for well over 300.000 visitors a year. For more information about this, log on to the website www.zichtlijnen.oogziekenhuis.nl. Keep track of all the latest developments at the Eye Hospital via the website www.oogziekenhuis.nl .

Irma Boom, Graphic Designer

Ms. Boom is an Amsterdam-based graphic designer who specializes in making books. After earning her B.F.A. in graphic design from the AKIArt Academy in Enschedé, she worked for five years at the Dutch government publishing and printing office in The Hague. In 1991 she founded Irma Boom Office, which works nationally and internationally in both the cultural and commercial sectors. Clients include the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Aga Khan Foundation for Architects, the Museum of Modern Art, Prince Claus Fund, Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum, Camper, Mallorca, Ferrari, Vitra International, the United Nations, and OMA/Rem Koolhaas. For five years she worked (editing and concept/design) on the 2,136-page SHV Think Book 1996–1896, commissioned by SHV Holdings in Utrecht and published in English and Chinese. Ms. Boom has been the recipient of many awards for her book designs and was the youngest ever laureate to receive the prestigious Gutenberg prize for her complete oeuvre. The University of Amsterdam manages the Irma Boom Archive, and recently the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired her work for the permanent collection in the Design and Architecture Department. She was appointed to the Yale faculty in 1992 and is currently senior critic in graphic design.