Books on Books Vol.13 “Sweet Life”

Ed van der Elsken’s Sweet Life published in 1966 is considered one of the key works of Dutch photobook history. In 1960, armed with two magazine commissions and a stipend from Netherlands television, Ed van der Elsken and his wife Gerda set off on a fourteen month journey around the world. Six years after their return, he published his travelogue Sweet Life which exhibited a panoply of layout effects – double-page bleeds, crops, printed in deep gravure, and different cover designs for each of the six countries in which it was published. Books on Books #13 presents a study of this classic book with a contemporary essay by Frits Gierstberg.