Photo via Flickr user Ethan Kan

When I did my double major in unemployment at the University of Toronto, I was asked to purchase more than one overpriced textbook, though I never had to buy an art history textbook without pictures. However, that’s exactly what the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) is asking its students. The textbook, Global Visual and Material Culture: Prehistory to 1800, costs $180 and is required reading for a course with the same name. The textbook’s publisher claims that it could not secure rights to the pictures in time to print the textbook for the start of the class. As a result, students are expected to read the textbook while looking up the missing art pieces on their computer. 

In a letter to students of the class, OCAD’s dean argues that the book is a good value proposition. According to the dean, the textbook, which combines multiple other textbooks, would have cost students $800 had it included pictures. [Gawker]

____

Igor Bonifacic is a simple intern working for the Toronto Standard. You can follow him on twitter at @igorbonifacic.