City to host a talk to explore forms, cultures of a book

City-based book publishing house Tara Books is marking its 25 years of publishing with a lecture series. Leading Indian graphic designer Rathna Ramanathan will take part in the series, taking the audience through a visual and sensorial journey through the forms, cultures and diverse contexts of the object we commonly refer to as a ‘book’.

The session will view the book through an Indian lens. The talk is expected to revisit the cultures that inform and enrich the book, its language, script, tools, material and printing, publishing, reading, writing — and what each of these means in the Indian context, says the publishing house. 

The talk will also use visual examples from the very first texts in the country to the modern book designs. It would reaffirm the power that a book can have in our imaginations and in a multicultural society like ours, the publisher adds. Rathna, who will be holding the session, is said to have pioneered children’s book design in India and is also the Dean of Communication at the Royal College of Art, London.