The Library: An Open Book

A multifaceted exploration of libraries and books by leading authors, artists, and photographers from around the world.

Celebrating Herzog and de Meuron’s iconic new National Library of Israel, built together with Israeli Executive Architect Mann-Shinar, this book takes the reader on a journey that transcends stone and mortar to explore the importance of libraries in our fastpaced Digital Age. The book features original short stories, paintings, photographs, and comics by some of the world’s leading authors and artists.

This volume celebrates the culmination of a visionary thirty-year project to renew the National Library of Israel led by Yad Hanadiv – the Rothschild Foundation: the architectural icon in the heart of Jerusalem created by Herzog and de Meuron in collaboration with Mann-Shinar. It invites readers to think of the library as a public space, as an object, a concept, and a spiritual entity. The book includes original stories by leading authors from Israel and abroad, artwork by Zoya Cherkassky, photographs by three outstanding Israeli photographers, and a graphic novella by Rutu Modan.
 

Ido Bruno is a designer, teacher, curator, and creative artist. He is a professor in the Department of Industrial Design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and director emeritus of the Israel Museum.