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A book is not only a carrier of information, but also the way of its aesthetic visualization. This actualizes the problem of understanding a book as an artistic artifact. The study of the book in this context implies the identification of several aspects: the art of the book; the existence of the book as an exhibit of museum and exhibition art space; the use of the book as a compositional and meaningful element of works of fine art, as a component of library design, living and working spaces; alterbooking and architectural structures in the form of a book. The article is devoted to the art of the book and its exhibition in museum and exhibition space. Its goal is to systematize the factors and features that should be considered in the study of the art of book for the possibility of its holistic interpretation from an art criticism perspective. The article considers the role of decoration in creating visual and verbal unity. The functions of illustration depending on the cultural and historical context as well as a purpose of the book are determined. Attention is paid to such phenomena of book art as fore-edge painting, artist’s book and art albums. The existence of the book in museum and exhibition art space is also considered. There are two types of exhibitions: single-subject exhibitions devoted exclusively to books and exhibitions with other objects participating in the realization of the semantic concept of a cultural event.

Fore-edge Painting is a type of book decoration. Germinating in the 10th century in Europe, it revived and prospered during the second half of the 18th century, when a number of books with foreedge paintings emerged. This technology spread to the other side of the Atlantic and flourished in the United States in the next century. In the 20th century, fore-edge painting also was disseminated into China. Fore-edge painting still exists today, which shows the charm of this kind of book decoration. Fore-edge painting is not only a technique, but also an art. The existing books with fore-edge paintings reflect people’s pursuit of beauty, their love for books through the centuries, which has written a brilliant page in the history of the book. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract)

Fore-edge Painting is a type of book decoration. Germinating in the 10th century in Europe, it revived and prospered during the second half of the 18th century, when a number of books with foreedge paintings emerged. This technology spread to the other side of the Atlantic and flourished in the United States in the next century. In the 20th century, fore-edge painting also was disseminated into China. Fore-edge painting still exists today, which shows the charm of this kind of book decoration. Fore-edge painting is not only a technique, but also an art. The existing books with fore-edge paintings reflect people's pursuit of beauty, their love for books through the centuries, which has written a brilliant page in the history of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study we are trying to illuminate the palette used by the artist who decorated the fore-edge of the Middle Age printed book description of the military campaign of the Spanish king Emanuel Hieronymus Osorio and try to give a temporal boundary on the moment of their creation. Our experiments show that a pigment palette is a common one for the period between 16th and 19th century. Several pigments were identified, like vermilion and minium, white lead and massicot. Further, we identified the ink used for the book cover inscriptions. Three complementary, non-invasive spectroscopic techniques were used: micro-Raman spectroscopy, PIXE spectroscopy and UV-VIS FORS spectroscopy. The challenges which occurred during the study are presented, such as the positioning of the book underneath the microscope or even the fiber optic probe holder, the roughness of the fore-edge surface and the thinness of the color layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]