Judging All the Books by Their Covers

Book review. “The Look of The Book” is a gallimaufry of reproduced book covers, and an account of the theories, traditions, and digitizations of such adornments.

Book covers can constitute a kind of solicitude. As writer/illustrator David Wiesner contends, “The first art that children see is in picture books.” And certain picture book illustrators, he continues, strive to enhance their young readership’s “burgeoning visual literacy.” Cover images necessarily figure into that process. This topic is among those insufficiently explored in The Look of The Book: Jackets, Covers, and Art at the Edges of Literature. But the book’s authors, writer/designer Peter Mendelsund and scholar David J. Alworth, are thoughtful in their discussions of the covers of adult literary works. …

By  Matthew D. Rodrigues, Hyperallergic,