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This article represents the culmination of a research effort by a number of people over a period of several years. Important earlier contributions came from \textit{E. G. Manes} [Gen. Topology Appl. 4, 341-360 (1974; Zbl 0289.54003)] and from \textit{H. Herrlich}, \textit{G. Salicrup} and \textit{G. E. Strecker} [Topology Appl. 27, 157-169 (1987; Zbl 0629.18003)]. Just as Hausdorff-separation, the notions of compactness and perfectness can be given an elegant formulation in terms of (suitably well-behaved) categorical closure operators and thus become meaningful in settings quite removed from point-set topology. The starting point for this development is the observation by \textit{C. Kuratowski} [Fundam. Math. 17, 249-272 (1931; Zbl 0003.10504)] and \textit{S. Mrówka} [Colloq. Math. 7, 19-22 (1959; Zbl 0093.36305)] that a compact space \(X\) may be characterized by the projection \(X\times Y\to Y\) being closed, for any space \(Y\). In the process, new and simpler proofs of known theorems in point-set topology are obtained, which suggest a re-evaluation of the hierarchy of these theorems. This is particularly striking in the area of compact morphisms (also known as perfect or proper morphisms), where important results are consequences of passing to appropriate slice categories. E.g., the Frolík-Bourbaki product theorem for compact maps may be derived from Tychonoff's product theorem in this fashion.