I was looking for a book in the "little book" or "short bus" section of my library and came up with some gems I had not seen in a while, so I thought I would share....
I've never seen another one of these. The corrugated cardboard cover is quite advanced for 1946-1947. (Or maybe it just has something to do with the economy of post-war Italy?) Check out the Sottsass sculpture and the spelling of his name.
UPDATE- I was looking for a date and I saw something I had never seen before on the last page, printed really tiny tiny: "Printed in Italy. This book has been drawn up and graphically supervised by Bruno Munari. Printed by Piero Bertolotti, Milan.
Score!
Collectable of the future, although I bet they made a million of these. Modern use of cardboard by the man who made cardboard furniture famous, Sir Franklin Gehry.
More cardboard as cover, this time in a vivid yellow. This is a teaser catalog from the first all Eames auction that Richard Wright organized in 1999. Geeze, has it been that long? You don't see many of these either.
Classic by Bruno Munari. "The Unreadable Book". BM conceived if this in 1949, and he made a only handful by hand. Then in 1953, 2000 were made with red and white pages. This one is from 1967, and has black and red pages and was made in conjunction with MOMA. This one is #702, but I'm not sure how many they made. I bought this from the same guy who had the "Handicraft as a fine art in Italy" book, makes sense now.
Museum of Modern Art publication circa 1950. Jack Dunbar designed. Is he famous in the graphic design world? I have no idea, never heard of him. I'm not sure if Jack intended for the wax paper cover to be an integral part of the design, or if it was just for protection, but I like that it has survived so well for the last 60 years.
LOVE this cover. I love anything checkerboard though. I wish Vans made winter boots. They should!
Anyway, MOMA strikes again, this time 1953 and again, Jack is the culprit. (He's getting more famous as we speak....) Very Alexander Girard meets Librace.
I should have made this post all MOMA. Next time. Again, I am luving this cover by..... Joseph Bourke Del Valle, circa 1965. I guess Jack was retired by then. Or fired, I heard he was quite the tippler... I'm just kidding Jack. ANYWAY, circa 1965 with Bridget Riley's "Current " as cover detail.
Please remember that this whole post started because I was looking for a vertically challenged book, so stick with me here.... This is the only KEM Weber monograph so far (I think another one is in the works and it would be well deserved) and a diminutive, but informative little tome it is. I'm liking the orange and metallic silver cover, but KEM is looking a little glum... The original catalog was from a show in 1969 (those have to be SUPER rare) but this printing was completed in 1976 and they only made 750 copies. It was designed by the late great scholar, David Gebhard who is also the co-author.
MoMa, MoMa, Moma, again the institution strikes with this tiny little book on architecture and the Bauhaus (very topical of me no?) Printed in 1937 when MoMa was only a wee tike of 8. Don't know who designed it, maybe Walter himself?
Maybe on of the coolest covers of 1949. It was also laid-out with help from the "Modulor" or so says Charles-Edouard. Who's the "Modulor"? You will have to read the book to find out. This is a, boo-hoo, second edition from 1954, but a super sweet copy.
That's all for now. More little books to follow with a surprise guest that will SHOCK YOU!
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