Dutch Moderne examines a little-charted genre of Dutch graphic design during the 20's and 30's. The stylistic movements of the period - from De Stijl to art deco - played a vital role in bringing the concepts of the modern movement into the commercial world. A synthesis of cubist and ancient Egyptian and Mayan forms, art deco quickly spread throughout post-World War I France, Germany, England, Italy, and Eastern Europe before appearing in Holland. And yet despite its comparatively late start, Dutch designers enthusiastically embraced the style for its contemporary feel, elegance, and streamlined aesthetic as an alternative to staid traditional and outrageous revolutionary graphic approaches. The style influenced virtually all forms of Dutch commercial art, from magazines, newspapers, and posters to trademarks and advertisements. Dutch Moderne features over 500 of these designs, many of which have never before been published in the United States, by scores of designers both renowned and anonymous. These unearthed artifacts of Dutch commercial design reveal the rich legacy of an indigenous style. This book is an essential resource for graphic designers, students of design, and pop culture history aficionados alike.

A critical guide to the English-language literature, Dutch Modernism demonstrates the importance of the Dutch contribution to 20th-century architecture. Holland's valuable role in the creation of modernism (1900-1940) was all but ignored until 30 years ago; it is significant that more than a third of the English-language literature has appeared since 1975. This guide is comprehensive; it summarizes, describes, and evaluates 1,250 references in the light of contemporary theory and practice. This work is of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners. The introduction outlines Holland's unique place in the development of international Modernism, 1900-1940, and explores the phenomenon of its eventual recognition in Britain and the United States. Although not an exhaustive study, this work presents all the areas of study and helpfully evaluates most entries, saving the user time and energy. A number of Dutch publications have been included, some because they are seminal theoretical works and others because they are rich in images. As a guide to English-language sources, Dutch Modernism reaches a wider audience than earlier Dutch and Italian bibliographies.

This volume contains a selection of essays presented at the international conference of Cultural Crises in Art and Literature, held in Groningen in November 2002, in special sessions concerning modern Dutch literature. The recent decennia have shown a gradual transition in Netherlandic Studies towards new scopes: a contextual orientation of literature and the reception of 'Theory'. The contributions to this volume touch upon the theme of cultural crises from the perspective of these frameworks, approaching topics like the interrelation of literary representation and historical and medical discourse concerning the obsession by dirt, contamination, and dust; the impact of nationalism and humanism (in the political field) on literary education; the decline of modernism, resulting in the changing position of women authors, the rise of children's literature and the reassessment of 'low' genres like melodrama. A brief outline of the development of the study of modern Dutch literature opens this volume, the presentation of a general theoretical and methodological framework for conceptualizing the notion of cultural crisis concludes it.

An illustrated feast for the eye and intellect Dutch Art explores developments in art, art history, art criticism, and cultural history of the Netherlands from the artists' workshops for the Utrecht Dom in 1475 to the latest movements of the 1990s. it is lavishly illustrated with 147 black-and-white photographs and 16 pages in full color. More than 100 internationally recognized scholars, museum professionals, artists, and art critics contributed signed essays to this monumental work, including historians, sociologists, and literary historians.

A fundamental natural resource, water and its use not only reflect "modes of production" but also that complex interplay between resources and their exploitation (and domination) by various social agents, who in their turn are inevitably influenced by the abundance or rarity of water supplies. Focusing on scientific, social and economic issues from the 16th to the 19th century, the author, one of Italy's leading historians in this field, looks at the innumerable conflicts that arose over water resources and the environmental impact of projects intended to control them. Venice and Holland are undoubtedly the two most fascinating cases of societies "built on water," with the conquest of vast expanses of marshland - either inland or on the coast (the Dutch polders or the Venetian lagoon) – not only stimulating agricultural production, but also nurturing a deeply-felt relationship between the local populations and the element of water itself. The author rounds off his study by looking at the influence the hydraulic technology developed in Holland would have on many European countries (France, England and Germany in particular) and at questions raised by contemporaries about the environmental impact of agricultural progress and its effects upon the social-economic equilibria within the communities concerned.

Letter Perfect explores the artistic facet of the style, arrangement, appearance, and recent accelerated evolution of typeset matter, primarily through the medium of posters.