William Blake's Illuminated Books

The nature of William Blake's genius and of his art is most completely expressed in his illuminated books. In order to give full and free expression to his vision, he invented a method of printing which enabled him to create works in which images combine to form pages uniquely rich in content and beautiful in form. Blake's hope that the books would obtain wide circulation was unfilfilled: some exist only in unique copies, and none was printed in more than very small numbers.