The private collection of the collector Gernot Uwe Gabel comprises mainly illustrated fiction by a variety of authors and shows a wide range of literary genres. Mainly editions of such authors were acquired that can be assigned to the literary canon of European and North American nations. The majority of the artists represented with book illustrations in the collection were active during the 20th century, but there are also volumes designed by renowned illustrators of the 18th and 19th centuries. The latter include Daniel Chodowiecki, Peter Cornelius, George Cruikshank, Honoré Daumier, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré, Heinrich Ramberg and Ludwig Richter. For the early 20th century, names such as Ernst Barlach, Lovis Corinth, George Grosz, Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann, Emil Preetorius, Max Slevogt and Hugo Steiner-Prague should be mentioned, and the ranks of contemporary illustrators include Gunter Böhmer, Wilhelm M. Busch, Klaus Ensikat, Fritz Fischer, Josef Hegenbarth, Horst Janssen, Werner Klemke, Alfred Kubin, Gerhard Marcks, Franz Masereel, Pablo Picasso, Max Schwimmer and A. Paul Weber. Among the more than 3,500 volumes are also illustrated children's and youth books from more recent times.
Dr Gabel has donated the volumes to the University and City Library of Cologne over the past two decades. Within the framework of several exhibitions conceived by the collector in the foyer of the library, the following selection could be shown: Don Quixote's Footsteps in Germany (2004), German Book Artists of the 20th Century Illustrate German Literature (2006), The Illustrated Schiller (2009), Voltaire's "Candide"(2012), François Villon (2013), Charles Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (2015) and Herman Melville - "Moby Dick" (2016).
The books in this private collection have been integrated into the holdings of the University and City Library and distributed to various locations in the book stacks. The volumes can be recognised by the collector's bookplate, designed by the Cologne book artist Eduard Prüssen.