Can we give a simple answer to the question which segment of book is more important? Is it its visual appearance or its textual content? Some people surely can. Readers, though, see it differently. They see book as a whole, so it should be seen as a whole even in the process of its creation. In the model situation the artist and the author of the text would have the same artistic intention, or even better, they would be one person. A question of form and content of a book is widely explored in the phenomenon of artist’s book. It is usually made by a single author who presents through it his or her artistic self or comments on certain aspect of objective reality. The artist’s book has already entered the realm of children’s book, with all its specificity. The artist’s book for children could, thus, lead to a better interaction between author and percipient. Attempts of such kind can be found in our book market under the name of so called collector’s books.
In the Baltic, the beginning of the 20th century ushered in a dramatic increase in book production, as decade-old restraints on freedom of artistic creation lost much of their efficacy. Much more than text was transformed. Artists contributed to transforming book covers and setting them aside as an open space for experimentation and inquiry. They explored how handwriting could encapsulate the various moods of the era and its moments of upheaval, experimented with notions of ephemerality and, subsequently, with the encounter with the beholder.
Burinist Johann Blaschke, born in Bratislava and professionally active in Vienna, contributed to a series of publications, popularizing contemporary literature together with editions of antique literature on mythology, art or history. Facts from the artist's work and life - especially those on relationship between illustrators and publishers - indicate that book illustration at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries is relevant not only to art historians but also to those who research the book market of the epoch.
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