Exlibris of V.Voldemarov 1978

Oleksandr Aksinin made this bookplate for V. Voldemarov with etching in 1978. Look closely: the image feels like an ant hill, but it’s also a weirdly monumental cityscape. The lines are so finely etched, they create textures as much as forms. See how the shading almost vibrates? I love the way the circular format contains this bustling micro-world. The artist makes sure to divide our attention between the minutiae of the textures, and the wider structure of the piece. Take the way Aksinin articulates the wall, for instance. It is like a slice taken from Piranesi’s fantasies of ancient Rome, but it’s rendered in a scale that you might find in the elaborate architecture of an ant colony. This miniaturisation also makes me think of Paul Klee, another master of playful, intricate imagery.