DOI issue:
Nr. 1
DOI article:Kreslins, Janis: Reading, seeing, conceiving in the Baltic, or Don't judge a modernist book by its cover
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51715#0035
dooř to a new form of expression. A world unto
itself, it merited délinéation as a separate entity, of-
ten completely divorced from the rest of the book,
both conceptually and aesthetically.* * * * * 10 It offered the
opportunity for the artist to invent space - at times
decoratively, at others functionally. The cover served
as an advertisement and opened for Creative interplay
between text and image. It could change from one
copy to another [Fig. 2] - a throwback, ironically, to
the hand-press era. By purposefully transgressing
conventions, by going against the grain of previous
book design, it could underscore borderless transi-
tions. Designing covers served as a very important
source of income for the génération of artists dur-
ing this decade. There was money in conceiving and
crafting this artistic space. The vast involvement on
the part of the community of artists signaled the
advent of a new form of commercialization. Most
importantly, it reinforced the conviction that not
only did the message háve to be succinct to be ef-
fective, but it also was, in many ways, transient. It is
in these qualities that new meanings and uses could
be discovered and articulated.
One of the most striking features of the covers
produced during the first decade of the 20th Century
in Riga is the prédilection of the new génération
artists for hand-designed lettering, avoiding type-set
lettering and that which can be referred to as classic
calligraphy. How can this be explained? What could
this signify? What kind of tools do we need to in-
vestigate this question? Are there new parameters
which we need to introduce in investigating artistic
expression during this period? What other fields and
disciplines might offer us a glimpse or view below
the surface, provide an understanding into the inner
character and hidden nature of things?
To answer some of these questions, I would like
to transpose our tale of the artistic environments
which gave rise to these developments by introduc-
ing two forms of cultural expression - those of
For the catalogue of the groundbreaking exhibition at the
New York Public Library about book covers from this later
period, see MANSBACH, S. A. - SIEMASZKIEWICZ, W J.:
Graphie Modernistu. From the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910 - 1935.
New York 2007.
10 The ink and brush drawings on the cover were designed neither
to lead the reader into the book, nor to simply cover it.
2. E. Treimanis-Zvârgulis: Weentulibä. Cesis.-J. Osols, 1905. Artistic
design Krisjänis Ceplitis. Photo: Private collection of Valdis Vilerušs.
orality and literacy — and the significance they had
for promoting and sustaining cultural expression in
the region.
Unlike its western counterparts, the eastern
régions of the Baltic were shaped by the tension
between orality and literacy. For centuries, it was one
of the most fundamental identity markers, much
more important than the language or languages one
used as a primary vehicle of communication, much
more important than confession, trade or ethnie
background.11 In the Baltic, culture, and thus identity,
was twofold — either deutsch or undeutsch. Identity was
formed by the culture of communication to which
one belonged. The gulf between these two worlds
was profound. This had been so already in the middle
ages and the early modern period.12 This had not
changed dramatically until the turn of the last Cen-
tury, despite significant developments in the latter
half of the 19th Century. The beginning of the 20th
Century proved to be a tumultuous turning point.
11 GREEN, D. H.: Medieval Ustening and Reading. Cambridge
1994, pp. 2-19; ONG, W.: Orality and Uteracy: Technologitfng
the Word. London 1982, pp. 31-115.
12 KRESLINS, J.: Übersetzen um jeden Preis. Mündlichkeit
und Schriftlichkeit im frühneuzeitlichen europäiscchen Nor-
dosten. In: Wissenstransfer und Innovationen rund um das Mare
Balticum. Ed. B. SCHMIDT. Hamburg 2007, pp. 35-41.
29
itself, it merited délinéation as a separate entity, of-
ten completely divorced from the rest of the book,
both conceptually and aesthetically.* * * * * 10 It offered the
opportunity for the artist to invent space - at times
decoratively, at others functionally. The cover served
as an advertisement and opened for Creative interplay
between text and image. It could change from one
copy to another [Fig. 2] - a throwback, ironically, to
the hand-press era. By purposefully transgressing
conventions, by going against the grain of previous
book design, it could underscore borderless transi-
tions. Designing covers served as a very important
source of income for the génération of artists dur-
ing this decade. There was money in conceiving and
crafting this artistic space. The vast involvement on
the part of the community of artists signaled the
advent of a new form of commercialization. Most
importantly, it reinforced the conviction that not
only did the message háve to be succinct to be ef-
fective, but it also was, in many ways, transient. It is
in these qualities that new meanings and uses could
be discovered and articulated.
One of the most striking features of the covers
produced during the first decade of the 20th Century
in Riga is the prédilection of the new génération
artists for hand-designed lettering, avoiding type-set
lettering and that which can be referred to as classic
calligraphy. How can this be explained? What could
this signify? What kind of tools do we need to in-
vestigate this question? Are there new parameters
which we need to introduce in investigating artistic
expression during this period? What other fields and
disciplines might offer us a glimpse or view below
the surface, provide an understanding into the inner
character and hidden nature of things?
To answer some of these questions, I would like
to transpose our tale of the artistic environments
which gave rise to these developments by introduc-
ing two forms of cultural expression - those of
For the catalogue of the groundbreaking exhibition at the
New York Public Library about book covers from this later
period, see MANSBACH, S. A. - SIEMASZKIEWICZ, W J.:
Graphie Modernistu. From the Baltic to the Balkans, 1910 - 1935.
New York 2007.
10 The ink and brush drawings on the cover were designed neither
to lead the reader into the book, nor to simply cover it.
2. E. Treimanis-Zvârgulis: Weentulibä. Cesis.-J. Osols, 1905. Artistic
design Krisjänis Ceplitis. Photo: Private collection of Valdis Vilerušs.
orality and literacy — and the significance they had
for promoting and sustaining cultural expression in
the region.
Unlike its western counterparts, the eastern
régions of the Baltic were shaped by the tension
between orality and literacy. For centuries, it was one
of the most fundamental identity markers, much
more important than the language or languages one
used as a primary vehicle of communication, much
more important than confession, trade or ethnie
background.11 In the Baltic, culture, and thus identity,
was twofold — either deutsch or undeutsch. Identity was
formed by the culture of communication to which
one belonged. The gulf between these two worlds
was profound. This had been so already in the middle
ages and the early modern period.12 This had not
changed dramatically until the turn of the last Cen-
tury, despite significant developments in the latter
half of the 19th Century. The beginning of the 20th
Century proved to be a tumultuous turning point.
11 GREEN, D. H.: Medieval Ustening and Reading. Cambridge
1994, pp. 2-19; ONG, W.: Orality and Uteracy: Technologitfng
the Word. London 1982, pp. 31-115.
12 KRESLINS, J.: Übersetzen um jeden Preis. Mündlichkeit
und Schriftlichkeit im frühneuzeitlichen europäiscchen Nor-
dosten. In: Wissenstransfer und Innovationen rund um das Mare
Balticum. Ed. B. SCHMIDT. Hamburg 2007, pp. 35-41.
29