At the Antwerp Book Fair, fans queue for hours to get books signed by star authors. But schedules (and mortality) make many signings impossible. Bol.com (the Amazon of the Netherlands) wanted a culture-stealing idea that proved its love of literature and drew crowds to its stand.

We collaborated with design lab Beyond to build a handwriting robot that could reconstruct an author’s exact signature and inscription style - even for authors who weren’t there (or alive). Eight major writers “signed” non-stop across the fair; and we even brought celebrated Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen back from the dead for one last signing.