This book had a limited distribution and was never reprinted, but I imagine that anyone lucky enough to own a copy recognizes it as a project of exceptional worth. It tells the story of Dutch graphic design, showing how idealistic designers were motivated, from the time of modernism, by a commitment to visual communication as an agent of change. This history is prefaced by a philosophical analysis of idealism, and the main text ends by showing how the tradition of idealism appeared—in 1999—to be coming to a close. Clad in a rough cardboard cover, the book projects the engaging visual values of a remarkably open graphic culture.