Book Addict: Boudewijn Büch
100,000 books auctioned from his ‘Bibliotheca Didina et Pinguina’
The library (‘Bibliotheca Didina et Pinguina’ ) Boudewijn Büch left behind when he died in 2002 was estimated at 100,000 books and other artifacts by the auction house Bubb Kuypers. To include all the objects, the auction catalog had to be divided in three parts and the auction itself took three stages that spanned a year (Bubb Kuyper, 2004). 1
Dutch author2 and television presenter, Boudewijn Büch (1948-2002), made a considerable contribution to an open and democratic environment for curating in the Netherlands. As a bibliophile, he was not only a valuable customer to antiquarian bookshops, but also the biggest promoter of the book and of collecting in general.3 What was Boudewijn Büch's role in the traditional world of curating by institutions as museums and libraries on the one hand and the modern perspective on the other where the consumer becomes curator?4
His essays and little seen videos provide some insight.5
Bubb Kuyper. (2004). Bibliotheca Didina et Pinguina. The library of Boudewijn Büch [Sales catalogue in 3 volumes] Pt. 1: Natural history, medicine, sciences, travel, exploration, colonization. Pt. 2: Books about books, fine and applied arts, philosophy, literature. Pt. 3: History and travel, music varia and addenda. Haarlem: Bubb Kuyper.
Mouws, F. (2004a). Boudewijn Büch : Een overzicht van zijn werk [Boudewijn Büch: An overview of his work]. Soesterberg: Aspekt.
Alex van EGMOND. (2014) Openness in Curation: The Dutch Case of Boudewijn Büch International Journal of Cultural and Creative Industries .
Ibid.
Büch, B. (2001). De hele wereld in een vitrinekast [The whole world in a cabinet]. Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers; . Video (1995): De wereld van Boudewijn Buch (in Dutch).
Didn't realize at first that Boudewijn Büch was his name, because I've never heard of that first name, and Buch means book in German. How aptly he was named.