In this event, a collaboration with MAXXI, the Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom, known as “The Queen of Books,” will discuss her collaborations with artists and architects with MAXXI Artistic Director Hou Hanru. Considered by many to be among the world’s foremost book designers, Boom combines what are usually three distinct roles—designer, editor, and art director—into a single person, inventing ingenious ways of achieving desired effects. She has worked with, among others: Rem Koolhaas; De Appel, the contemporary art space in Amsterdam; and the Rijksmuseum. Fifty of her books are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the age of the iPad and Kindle, Boom continues to make beautifully designed traditional books. They are compelling arguments for carefully constructed printed media in a digital age.

Irma Boom is the William A. Bernoudy Designer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. The event will be held in English.

Conversations/Conversazioni series is sponsored by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation and with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.