The Museum Book

Jan Mark, ill. Richard Holland

Walker Books

1844287491

Apr 2007

A tribute to human knowledge and achievement, Jan Mark’s final completed work, ‘The Museum Book’ forms a fitting epitaph to an author whose work constantly challenged and was illuminated by a sense of curiousity and intrigue. As with her fictional output, the unique quality coursing through this extraordinary book is the intricate connections between experience and understanding that Mark has teased out.
‘The Museum Book’ insinuates the desire for macrocosmic realisation, yet accomplishes this down to the most minute detail, outlining the importance of individual experience and knowledge.
Richard Holloway has done a sterling job in epitomising through his illustrations, the wealth and breadth of knowledge that museums provide us access towards, and in making visual Mark’s verbal challenges as to what constitutes a museum, and to looking beyond the mere fabric and architecture of the buildings themselves.
Not always easy, or comfortable, consideration is given here to the nature of a museum and the plunderous acts that have sometimes underpinned their collation throughout history.
Here is a lasting gift, a tribute and testament to the skills of an author whose creative output, rather than sales figures, marks her out as one of the most remarkable authors of recent years. A welcome and an arguably necessary addition for the bookshelf of the everyman, whether they be young or old…