Inside the Obsessive World of Taschen’s Custom Book Stands
In 1999, Frank Goerhardt, a book-printing engineer at a small fine-art press in Verona, Italy, got a call from Benedikt Taschen. The German publisher, known for experimental art books, wanted to make a two-foot-tall, 50-pound volume of Helmut Newton’s photographs — a scale that would make reading it feel like attending a private gallery exhibition. And he wanted to print 10,000 of them. “There was no machine on the market that could do this!” Goerhardt recalls. An art book that large would have to be sewn by hand. If Goerhardt’s press were working at full capacity — it could bind a maximum...…In 1999, Frank Goerhardt, a book-printing engineer at a small fine-art press in Verona, Italy, got a call from Benedikt Taschen. The German publisher, known for experimental art books, wanted to make a two-foot-tall, 50-pound volume of Helmut Newton’s photographs — a scale that would make reading it feel like attending a private gallery exhibition. And he wanted to print 10,000 of them. “There was no machine on the market that could do this!” Goerhardt recalls. An art book that large would have to be sewn by hand. If Goerhardt’s press were working at full capacity — it could bind a maximum...WW…