Last summer (2025), I found a copy of Everyday Things and Their Stories: The Romantic Story of Modern Industry and How It Supplies Our Daily Needs at a second-hand book fair in Vicenza, Italy. The book operates in two registers: it is a popular explanatory book about everyday industrial processes, somewhat reminiscent of educational programmes like the German Die Sendung mit der Maus (although a darker version of it), while also seeming to anticipate what is now discussed under the name of “thing theory“. Because I find its illustrations aesthetically appealing (and for the sake of not simply letting this find disappear into data storage – as it all too often happens), I want to share some of them here:
