While the presentation of the photographic image is often and effectively done, the context of the image, in particular the frame, the book and/or the portfolio, is rarely given adequate presentation.
     It is that context in which a work is placed that focuses the attention of the viewer on the fact that this is asserted to be art, and what is more, is being presented as a completed work of art.
     Slides of images do not present photographs as art, but as work in process. They predispose the mind of the viewer to the idea that the work they are seeing is not final, that it still lacks something, that it is open to criticism. It challenges the viewer to find something wrong with the image.
     Work presented in a finished context, in a book, a page or a frame, is presented as a finished work of art, as an artistic fait accomplis. This predisposes the mind of the viewer to accept the work as finished, perfect within the realm of its own artistic universe.
     It is, therefore, important to view finished work in its appropriate context. To do otherwise is to disrespect the work as art.
The making of the fine print book is an art form as venerable as writing itself.
     Contemporary fine print demands that the book be beautiful, that it presents significant content, that it integrates its components in an appropriate way, and that it is as archival as current technology allows.      The book and portfolio format adds an additional layer of complexity and meaning to the content which it presents, just as the relationship between words and image significantly enhances the meaning and magnifies the impact of both.
     The image enriches the visual experience of the word, the word enhances the ideas and meaning of the image, and the book gratifies the sensual and tactile experience of all the constituent parts.
In an age of the death of literature and the decline of reading, it is important to remember that art is more than the mere electronic warehousing of information.
     It is necessary to remove the book from the endangered species list, to remember that the making of fine books, the process of design, the fabricating, the typesetting, printing and binding are all feasts of the mind, nourishment for the soul.
     Otherwise, the contemporary maker and the lover of fine books must live with the idea that we are cultural dinosaurs mourning a collapse of the human spirit, and that the making of a new book is nothing more than a eulogy for the death of print and the decline of literature.