Exlibris in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Abstract

This study focuses on how exlibris has influenced from modernization, especially how it became a commodity of ‘in the age of mechanical reproduction.’ While studying the issue, Marshall Berman’s ideas on modernism and being modern were used to explicate the issue, together with Jean Jacques Rousseau’s romantic novel La Nouvelle Heloise, which talks about the experience of living in a city. In addition, Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project was used to explain how the meaning of an art work has changed starting from the 19th century and in the 20th century, in relation with the new culture and communication technologies.