Illustrated publications and the role of market forces in shaping representations of Egypt at a time when European colonial interests in the region were at their peak, with 80 color and black and white illustrations

In the nineteenth century, following Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798 campaign in Egypt, new possibilities of travel and improvements in printing technology saw an emergence of publishing ventures in France and Britain dedicated to the production of albums and travel accounts featuring images of Muslim Egypt and Islamic architecture and catering to a growing European fascination with the East.

Visualizing Egypt analyzes the context and process of production of these highly illustrated publications, from their conceptualization to the finished product and its afterlife, from marketing to the sales of these books, and from circulation to their reception by nineteenth-century audiences. By tracing the long, arduous, and often risky publishing journeys of the makers of these books, including publishers, writers, and artists, such as the Frenchman Émile Prisse d'Avennes, Paulina Banas reveals a complex terrain of changing market demands, collaborations, and conflicting views, and the unsettled authorship of these works, prompting us to think more profoundly about artistic and intellectual exchange in the world of nineteenth-century Orientalist book production.

Visualizing Egypt considers nineteenth-century book illustrations on Egypt and the "Orient" not merely as expressions of enduring ideology and colonial propaganda, but as representations shaped by the often-overlooked commercial exigencies of the growing publishing industry and the reckless competition within it.

"Bonaparte's short-lived 1798 campaign in Egypt, new possibilities of travel, and improvements in printing technology in nineteenth-century France and Britain, a new publishing business dedicated to the production of albums and travel accounts picturing Muslim Egypt and Islamic architecture emerged to cater to a growing European fascination. Visualizing Egypt is about these nineteenth-century French and British illustrated publications filled with images brought from travel to Egypt and then published and promulgated to the Western audience. It analyzes the context and process of production of these books, from their conceptualization to the finished product and its afterlife, from marketing to the sales of these books, and from circulation to their reception by the nineteenth-century audience. By following the long, arduous, and often risky publishing journeys of the makers of these books, from publishers to writers, and artists, such as the Frenchman âEmile Prisse d'Avennes, Paulina Banas reveals changing market demands, collaborations, conflicting views, and the unsettled authorship of these works prompting us to think more profoundly about the artistic and intellectual exchange in the world of 19th-century Orientalist book production. By bringing together interests in travel writing, illustration, commerce, the free enterprise of publishing, and technology more broadly, Visualizing Egypt regards nineteenth-century book illustrations on Egypt and the "Orient" not merely as expressions of enduring ideology and colonial propaganda, but as representations shaped by the often-overlooked commercial exigencies of the growing publishing industry and the reckless competition among them."--