Pictograms.  Warja Lavater

In German (French and English). Softcover, 124 pages, 25.5 x 19.5cm. Nieves | 50 Watts. 2023

One of the pioneers of the artist's book genre, Warja Lavater was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1913. She worked as an illustrator for Jeunesse magazine between 1944 and 1958 and, shortly after, moved to New York, where she began a wonderful series of artist's books. These books were published between 1962 and 1971, an exceptionally propitious period for artists to turn to the book form, a time when the most cited "first" artist's book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), by Ed Ruscha, also appeared.

Many of Lavater's books were made using accordion binding. His aesthetic has been aptly described as "very clean, very Swiss".   Each book tells a story, sequentially, like traditional books, but differing from them in that it rarely uses words. Instead, she chooses a symbol to represent, for example, a character, such as the red dot that represents Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Hood.