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Object Timeline

1940

  • Work on this object began.

1949

  • Work on this object ended.

2001

  • We acquired this object.

2011

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Book Cover, André Gide by Van Meter Ames

This is a Book cover. It was graphic design by Alvin Lustig. It is dated 1940s and we acquired it in 2001. Its medium is offset lithograph on cream coated paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Borrowing from abstract painters, this book cover from the 1940s combines color, shape, and text in an unconventional way. By employing a suggestive, rather than literal or illustrative, approach to graphic design, prominent American graphic, typeface, and book designer Alvin Lustig creates a sophisticated relationship between concept and physical form. The cover image does not directly depict what the book is about, but rather references it obliquely. Lustig reads the text to get a feel for the work and the author’s style, and then restates its central idea graphically.

It is credited Gift of Susan Lustig Peck.

  • Katagami, Arrow Design
  • mulberry paper (kozo washi) treated with fermented persimmon tannin....
  • Gift of Helen Snyder.
  • 1976-103-289

Its dimensions are

18.4 x 21.0 cm (7 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. ), irregular

It is signed

Imprinted in white, lower left corner: lustig

It is inscribed

Imprinted in white to the right of center (sideways): THE MAKERS OF MODERN LITERATURE; in black, center left: andré/GIDE/by Van Meter Ames; along spine (sideways): ANDRÉ GIDE by Van Meter Ames; in white, lower left corner: lustig

Cite this object as

Book Cover, André Gide by Van Meter Ames; Graphic design by Alvin Lustig (American, 1915–1955); USA; offset lithograph on cream coated paper; 18.4 x 21.0 cm (7 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. ), irregular; Gift of Susan Lustig Peck; 2001-29-29

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18694807/ |title=Book Cover, André Gide by Van Meter Ames |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=24 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>