The Power of Books

We all had that moment in childhood didn’t we… when the pretty pictures in books suddenly came second to what the pages were actually saying. (Well, for some people, maybe that hasn’t happened yet.) But for a time, shorter or longer depending on the individual, it was a book’s illustrations which were a big factor in what drew us to a particular book.

William Blake
Illustration from The Book of Ahania, plate 2, 1795.
Intaglio etchings, designs colour-printed, 28.8 x 23.2 cm.
Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.