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Zdenek Primus’s publication presents more than 300 rare Czech publisher’s leather bindings from 1912–1938, created by leading figures of modernism and the avant-garde, including Karel Teige, Toyen, and Ladislav Sutnar. Produced mostly in editions of just fifty copies, these bindings reveal a unique and still little-known phenomenon of Czech book culture that, according to the author, is virtually unparalleled anywhere in the world. The book follows on from the successful publication Czech Avant-Garde 1922–1938.
While the book covers of the “Czech avant-garde” have by now become an indispensable part of the history of Czech art, few people are aware that publishers also produced leather bindings designed by the very same artists, including Karel Teige, Toyen, Jindřich Štyrský, Ladislav Sutnar, Vít Obrtel, and others. Zdenek Primus’s publication From Modernism to the Avant-Garde also features representatives of the so-called Cubist modernism, such as V. H. Brunner, Method Kaláb, and František Kysela, as well as later modernists including Josef Čapek, Emanuel Frinta, Václav Mašek, Antonín Pelc, and Vojtěch Tittelbach.
While books with printed covers were produced in editions ranging from several hundred to several thousand copies, leather bindings were generally issued in editions of only fifty copies, making them true rarities. The author puts forward the thesis that Czech publisher’s leather bindings are virtually unparalleled anywhere in the world and therefore represent a distinctive phenomenon within Czech modernist book culture. The visual impact of these leather-bound books is different, yet utterly compelling, and they belong to the finest traditions of book culture in the country.
This publication is conceived in a similar way to the book Czech Avant-Garde 1922–1938: Reflections of European Art and Photography in Book Design, to which it serves as a follow-up.
Zdenek Primus devoted many years to collecting these bindings and has now documented more than 300 of them in a book that can also serve as an exhibition catalogue.
