Lidantiu faram Lidantiu as a Beacon (Le-Dantyu as a Beacon)
Item date(s): 1923
Ilia Zdanevich (Iliazd) Naum Granovskii
- (collage by)
Pages: 61pp Size: 192mm Edition: #219/530
Place publication: Paris Publisher: 41° Cat. 1; 035-MM2 Exhibition 2014; 2017
Additional notes: With glassine wrappers; in a card chemise and housed in a drop-back box with label: "Ledentu as Beacon".
Shown in full at http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.deu/dada/Lendantu/index.htm
This copy has an elaborate inscription on the front endpaper: Donald Emerich, Duncan Black Emrich dated 7/XII/44. Uncut.
See Iliazd and the Illustrated Book, New York, MOMA 1987. Audrey Isselbacher.
Rowell/Wye p458 and 459 - illustrated on p126 and 127; Markov p354-357; Hellyer p144; ex-libris p84.
Bound in original grey wrappers with collage by Naoum Granovsky (Naum Granovskii) on onlaid gold and silver paper, cork and synthetic material. Text includes letterpress typographic designs by Iliazd who published the play shortly after he moved to Paris from Russia.
Elizabeth Phillips, her catalogue, remarks: While the colophon states that 530 copies were made, only about 150 are said to have been printed.
Iliazd called his publishing house "The 41st Degree".
See a discussion of Iliazd and this book at p23 of "Book Art Object", The Codex Foundation, 2008.
See: The World Backwards. Russian Futurist Books 1912-16. Illustrated on page 45, 62.
See Sims Reed Ltd catalogue "Antiquarian Books; Modern Illustrated Books; Contemporary Artists' Books": Item 100. n.d.
From bookseller on ABE:
Lidantiu faram [Ledentu as a Beacon]
ILYAZD, [i.e. Ilya ZDANEVICH].
Published by Izdaniya 41° Editions 41° Parizh, 1923
Description:
4to (19.7 x 15.1 cm). 61 pp. Original wrappers with printed design and collage of onlaid gold and silver paper, corck and synthetic material by Naum Granovskiy, kept in modern cloth box. A 'masterpiece of the Russian poetic avant-garde' (Johnson 25) in excellent condition, this copy bearing the number 493. Ilyazd's 'Lidantiu faram' is the last and most fully-realised of his five dramatic works. The text is remarkable typography, and the stunning collage cover by Granovskiy marks 'a moment of synthesis and a culminating point in his formal experiments' (Isselbacher 37). 'Each page of this book offers itself as a picture, that is, as pure 'graphism', exhibiting a typographical repertory so vast that it defies inventory. Furthermore, so playful is its organization that some of the pages virtually defy reading, breaking as they do with the linear conception of the text and forcing the reader to adopt a circular contemplation, to decipher in a back-and-forth manner more appropriate for viewing a picture [.] In 'Lidantiu' Iliazd reached a high point in his development of ludic typography as an integral part of the modern page layout; it was a moment of synthesis and a culminating point in his formal experiments.' Isselbacher, 'Iliazd and the Illustrated Book', New York, MoMA 1987; MoMA 459, illustrated pp. 126-27.
Bibliographic Details
Title: Lidantiu faram [Ledentu as a Beacon].
Publisher: Izdaniya 41° Editions 41° Parizh
Publication Date: 1923
Binding: Soft cover
Typographic designs by the author throughout, original decorative collaged wrappers by Naum Granovskii, glassine wrapper
Exhibition notes: Item 1 on TEXTures: an exhibition of texts, textures and structure in artists’ books.
Archives & Special Collections, University of Johannesburg
5 March to 18 April 2014
Item 035 - MM2 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.