008 - MM2
Dlya Golosa
For the Voice or For Reading Out Loud
El Lissitzky (illustrated by)
Vladimir Mayakovsky (poems by)
Gosizdat; Berlin, Germany
1923
187mm
61pp
Edition: Unknown
Notes: Illustrated throughout by Lissitzky. Bound in original publisher's thick orange wrappers designed by Lissitzky. Housed in a cloth folding box. Dlya Golosa is widely considered to be Lissitzky's masterpiece of modern typography. It remains one of the cornerstones of any collection of Russian Futurist books. Lissitzky designed title-pages for each of Mayakovsky's poems, which are some of his most frequently quoted poetic works, including Left March, Ramble, The Third International, The Art Army, Love and The Story of Red Riding Hood. From Lissitzky-Kuppers #94:108: "Lissitzky described the inspiration that prompted the innovative design of Dlya Golosa in his essay Typographical Facts: "To make it easier for the reader to find any particular poem, I use an alphabetical (i.e. thumb-indexed) index. The book is created with the resources of the compositor's type case alone. The possibilities of two-colour printing (overlap, cross hatching and so on) have been exploited to the full. My pages stand in much the same relation to the poems as an accompanying piano to a violin. Just as the poet in his poem unites concept and sound, I have tried to create an equivalent unity using the poem and typography." A fine copy of a very fragile book which is very scarce in any condition.