Because the appreciation of illustrated books requires direct contact between the object and the viewer, it is difficult to make the experience of viewing these books accessible to a wide audience—notwithstanding recent advances in digital “page turning.” Viewing a book is usually a solitary act; at most two people might be able to appreciate a volume at the same time. The images in them are encountered one by one in the sequence determined by the artist but at a pace set by the viewer. When a book is exhibited in a gallery, only one opening per volume may be displayed, pinned down and encased behind a pane of glass. Its essential quality, as a three-dimensional, multiple-image object, is lost. Similarly, few books about illustrated books do justice to their unique characteristics. Roger Keyes’s Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan goes a long way toward meeting the challenges presented by its subject. It combines passionate engagement and fluent writing with the generous provision of illustrations, fine design, and high production values. The Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library possesses one of the finest collections of Japanese illustrated books in the West, with...