2018 Gerard Reid Award for Best Book
Sponsored by Nielsen Book
Winner
Designer: Aaron Beehre
Title: New China Eyewitness: Roger Duff, Rewi Alley and the art of museum diplomacy
Publisher: Canterbury University Press
Format: 240 x 173mm, 176pp. Hardback with jacket including a diary section printed on a tinted uncoated stock set in both English and Chinese and illustrated with photos from Duff’s original diary. The warm uncoated reproduction of the type and photographs speaks to the nostalgia of the publication. The plate section, illustrating objects collected by Roger Duff, is presented on clean white coated paper and sits in contrast to the rawness of the diary entries. The cover is folded in half and represents the bilingual nature of the book. The use of red overlay, gold foiling and gloss lamination against the matt laminated black and white photography alludes to the meeting of two worlds evidenced in Duff’s diary.
Typography: Goudy, Anaheim Gothic, Courier, Songti, SimSun, SimHei. The diaries are set in courier (English) and STKaiti (Chinese)
Judges’ Comments This book delivers on many levels. It tackles dual language typographic layout, presenting content of some fifty years ago, with a knowledge of contemporary Museum collection (re)presentation and collection management. The diary approach with radius corners, could so easily look overworked, but the black ink and paper stock help the reader focus on the content. There is play and invention around the cover and enough of a nod to at least half of the cultural traditions of half of the audience – the Chinese language readers.
