Chekhov's Mistress
50 Books / 50 Covers
I recently stopped in to AIGA’s gallery on 5th avenue to check out the 50 Books/50 Covers exhibition with displays of the finalists in their annual book design competition (currently for books published in 2006). Not surprisingly, McSweeney’s, who has long put an aesthetic spin on their books, had quite a few entries, including The End of I and What is the What (is it me or do all McSweeney’s and friends books have essentially the same title?) as well as a couple of their journals, which at least look like books. Melville House had The Little Girl and The Cigarette, and Against the Day was there too.
Most interesting though, was a book I had not heard of: Joe with photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto of Richard Serra’s sculpture Joe accompanied by a “prose poem” by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s a beautiful approach to Serra and although I didn’t read all of Foer’s text it looks up to the task. Turns out that Foer wasn’t everyone’s choice. According to a New York Times article (“Art Capturing Art Capturing Art Capturing…”, 9/26), Richard Serra wanted Susan Sontag and Sugimoto wanted Foer and even Foer said “I would have chosen her over me.” Sontag’s failing health prohibited her involvement and the rest is history. I’ll have to go sit in a bookstore and read it sometime because I can’t afford the steep price tag, but I do enjoy the idea of several artists crossing through one another’s territory, particularly in the form of response.
But that’s an aside. The exhibit, which is no longer running, was an opportunity to think mostly about this single dimension of book: a publisher/designer/author’s visual conception, which even if ultimately geared toward marketing presents a fascinating problem of characterizing an entire book by an image or paper and in many ways sending a very specific message to a potential audience. The exhibit itself was in the form of a giant dinner table and eating was its theme. You can see the covers at the AIGA design archive.
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: November 27, 2007
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
