Irma Boom: Book Activist, the fourth volume in Irma Boom’s iconic red mini-book series, is published in Japanese and accompanied by a pink English-language appendix containing translations of the essays and texts included in the main volume. Despite its miniature format, the book comprises 1,500 pages and 720 images, making it as substantial as a dictionary.

Spanning approximately forty years of Irma Boom’s career (1985–2026), this volume showcases more than 500 books she has designed. Through essays by contributors including architect Rem Koolhaas and physician Rebecca Gomperts, alongside Boom’s own writings, the book explores the cultural value embedded in printed books from a wide range of perspectives.

Alongside her book-design projects, the volume includes research conducted at the Vatican Library in Italy, reflections on medieval manuscripts she encountered there, selections from the ib Library Collection—including rare books discovered in Japan—a tribute to her partner Julius Vermeulen, and an interview titled On Books (pp. 416–423), conducted by Osamu Kushida, director of FRAGILE BOOKS, in which she discusses a picture book she loved as a child. From her current position as a “Book Activist,” she offers a panoramic view of both the history of book design and the enduring cultural memory embodied in books.

She has contributed many essays to this volume herself. The following passage vividly conveys her life as a designer devoted to making books:

“Making books is time consuming and incredibly fascinating. It is something I want to spend almost all my time on, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You could call it obsessive. I am indeed obsessed with the printed book: the book as a physical object. The possibilities and impossibilities that it offers are so challenging and so thrilling that I can hardly understand why not everyone shares this essential excitement. The literal making, the materiality of the book, the inventions, the search for new structures—these things are addictive. I want to continue exploring, within the limitations of industrial production, what makes a particular book uniquely suited to its subject.”

Editions of This Work

The mini-book grows by 3% every year, whether a new volume is published or not. By the time Irma Boom reaches the age of 100, it will measure 219.2 × 166.6 mm—a “normal-sized” book. Its format originates from Boom’s habit of creating miniature mock-ups, which allow her to oversee and evaluate her designs as complete objects. For each major exhibition of her work, she produces a small red book to accompany it. This fourth volume includes an overview of her personal library and a selection of works she studied at the Vatican Library in Rome. Book Activist is printed on IBO Paper 52 gsm, a paper stock developed by Boom in collaboration with a German paper manufacturer.

Irma Boom