An art book does not simply carry images of works. It establishes a physical reading of them: which details ask for proximity, which sequences create distance, how text should live next to colour and surface. These are curatorial decisions, and they become production decisions the moment a paper is chosen. The brief has to begin from that intention, because a beautiful sheet can still give a wrong account of the work.
A criterion for colour
Files arrive from studios, museums, archives and photographers, each with its own capture history. Treating them identically makes the book look consistent while erasing differences that carry meaning. It helps to separate the image families and to say, for each, what fidelity means: a physical original, an approved reference file, or a deliberate interpretation agreed with the curator.
Colour proofs give curator, designer and prepress the same object to judge, and a reference for setting the press. Authors and publishers can also attend the press run at Printer Trento and look at the sheets as they come off the machine. For black-and-white work, a duotone built on a deep black and a mixed grey can add depth that a single ink does not reach. Binding and finishing belong to the same argument, since opening decides how compositions meet the gutter and the cover sets the passage from shelf to page.
Approve the critical works together
Select the compact group of images that represents the real difficulty of the book: skin, neutral fields, deep shadows, delicate line, any work with a known original. Review them with the intended paper in mind, and look at the relationships between images, not only at the accuracy of each one.
