Jessica Helfand

A well-written and excellently-illustrated treatment of scrapbooks from a historical perspective.

Heard about this book on the To the Best of Our Knowledge show called Reconsidering Craft, 12/14/2008: http://www.wpr.org/book/081214a.cfm.

I was not quite convinced about some of the more abstract claims about scrapbooks in relation to time and space (mainly because I did not fully understand them), but the descriptions of heavily edited and formatted blank scrapbooks that people could purchase and complete in the later chapters were amusing and interesting.

Helfand takes one design element (a moving paper wheel) and explores many different variations on it. Recommended for anyone interested in design.