Vrouw bekijkt de rug van een boek before 1897

Curator: This intriguing lithograph, titled "Vrouw bekijkt de rug van een boek," or "Woman Looking at the Spine of a Book," dates to before 1897. Its artistic style is clearly rooted in Art Nouveau, reflecting the aesthetics of its time. Editor: It has a breezy feel to it. Like looking into the past through a sunshine-tinted lens. Curator: Precisely. Art Nouveau often sought to elevate everyday subjects, like reading, into something aesthetically refined. Note the woman herself; her attire is stylish for the period, adorned with an elaborate hat. It's a visual symbol of the era's focus on beauty and adornment. This graphic also shows her complete absorption and engagement. It invites the viewer into that relationship. Editor: And there is something undeniably performative to reading sometimes. The large book appears like a prop in a scene she directs with her full being. I like that sense of the performative here, as the posture of the figure directs our eyes in the directions of other signs: other signifiers about "culture." But in the case of posters, its goal isn't art-making: its primary objective is to be seen by as many people as possible and to "speak." I love how these intentions and expectations coalesce here in something both delicate and commanding. Curator: I think that this image also touches on shifting gender roles in late 19th-century Paris, as women were becoming more publicly engaged in intellectual life, reflected in the burgeoning availability of mass media, of books, newspapers and journals. She holds that power in her hands. Editor: Absolutely. There's something inherently powerful about choosing what to read. That book, in a very tangible sense, shapes her world. That access, to both the literature in the book, as well as this poster speaking out into the public to be encountered. Those encounters begin to mean something when you stack them up over time, in personal development as much as public space. This makes me want to find an original print somewhere and give it wall space, see what else might happen. Curator: It is such a gorgeous image of books and knowledge, isn't it? What I admire most is how it captures that silent dialogue between a reader and their book. It almost serves as an early visual statement about women reading books in public and the power that might carry.