Exhibition catalogues extended the life of the exhibition beyond its temporal frame and site. Taiwan Government-General Library had in its collection all the annual catalogues of the official salon in Tokyo, the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition and its successor, the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition. Also, the library acquired a copy of the Dai 13 kai Chōsen bijutsu tenrankai zuroku (Thirteenth Korea Fine Arts Exhibition Catalogue, 1934), bringing the colonized Korean art world closer to the art interested readers in Taiwan. Click here to see the first classified catalogue of Taiwan Government-General Library holdings in 1918. Click here to see the classified catalogue of books acquired between 1918 and 1927.

Books with reproductions served as reference material for aspiring artists. One such important source available at the Taiwan Government-General Library was the twenty-volume set of Shinbi taikan (Selected Relics of Japanese Art), published between 1899-1908 by Shinbi shoin. A true tour de force of printing skills, this extensive oversize publication featured black and white photographs (collotypes) of highest quality by Ogawa Kazumasa as well as multi-color woodblock print reproductions of selected artworks in Japanese temples and private collections from the earliest times until the Tokugawa period. (Somewhat contrary to the title, the selection included also Chinese artworks.) Each reproduced artwork was accompanied by a one page explanatory text of iconographic analysis in Japanese and in English.

Shinbi taikan laid the foundations for the Meiji period canon of Japanese art and its high quality of printing cannot be overstated. Yes, it it is true that books with reproductions are only imperfect vehicles. Books distort the sense of scale and can only approximate the true color and texture of artworks. The publishers of Shinbi taikan dealt with these issues by using the new technology of the collotype to their advantage when reproducing three dimensional works and ink painting. Then, they utilized the existing expertise of woodblock print makers to recreate colored paintings through woodblock printing, mimicking the golden leaf and all details such as stains or minor damage to the painting surface. While a careful observer will recognize the flat-like quality of color applied characteristic of a woodblock print, the quality of each reproduction was astonishing (On the use of printing technology in reproducing artwork in China see Liu 2014). Moreover, the practice itself recalled earlier painting manuals from the Tokugawa period, which were also printed through woodblocks and widely used by artists.

The advancements of photography (and the high quality of woodblock printing, as in case of Shinbi taikan) helped facilitate circulation of images, making of artistic canons, and citations of masterpieces.