Retro Gallery is publishing a new book dealing with Czech leather binding between 1912-1938.
While the covers of the “Czech avant-garde” are now an indispensable part of the history of Czech art, few people know that publishing houses also produced leather bindings by the same authors, i.e. Karel Teige, Toyen, Jindřich Štyrský, Ladislav Sutnar, Vít Obrtel and others. In Zdenko Primus’ publication From Modernism to Avant-Garde, there is also the so-called Cubist Modernism, such as V.H. Brunner, Method Kaláb, František Kysela, later modernists Josef Čapek, Emanuel Frinta, Václav Mašek, Antonín Pelc or Vojtěch Tittelbach.
While several hundred to thousands of books with covers were printed, leather bindings were mostly in editions of only fifty copies, which makes them real rarities. The author presents the thesis here that Czech publishing house leather bindings are hardly equal in the world, and thus represent a specific feature of Czech modernist book culture. The visual impact of these leather-bound books is different, but absolutely convincing and belongs to the elite book culture of this country.
This publication is conceived similarly to the book Czech Avant-garde 1922 – 1938 - Reflexes of European Art and Photography in Book Design, to which it is a continuation.
Zdenek Primus has devoted himself to collecting them for many years and has now compiled more than 300 (three hundred) of them in a book that can also serve as a book catalog for exhibitions.
