Para Ser Eterno Basta Ser Um Livro [To be a book is to be eternal] introduces the visitor to a popular and fascinating dimension of the history of publishing in Portugal. To show the book as a design object, curators José Bártolo and Jorge Silva organized the exhibition around thematic sections, with a wide selection of books of different literary genres and formats that reveal authors, designers, illustrators and typographers.

The exhibition was conceived as a meta-book, using the walls, corridors and rooms of the exhibition venue as a book plan, corresponding to sections or chapters. In the same way, the catalog can be seen as an exhibition, a book displaying books, revealing their history in the context of the Portuguese 20th century.

For curators José Bártolo and Jorge Silva, one way of looking is prevalent: books are design objects, and so there is a desire to get to dissect them, paying attention to its form and structure, the technical processes used in its production, the specifics of typography, photography or illustration. Para Ser Eterno Bast Ser Um Livro highlights authorship, the publishing labels and the lives of the book, its context and history, its content and the form it takes.

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