Voorplat van een boekband voor: Boeken van wijsheid en schoonheid, 1913 1913

This is a book cover from 1913, made by an anonymous artist for ‘Books of Wisdom and Beauty’. It’s an elegant exercise in restraint, no? The way the artist lets the dark ink breathe against the off-white of the page. It’s so simple, yet it has this captivating geometry; those circles and fans, all stacked so deliberately. I find myself drawn to that repeated motif at the bottom, the one that looks a little like a stylized flower or maybe even a tiny crown. It's like a secret code, isn't it? This careful balance between the decorative and the functional, that’s what makes the piece sing. It reminds me a little of Hilma af Klint's work – this sense of trying to make the invisible visible, though in a more subtle way, of course. It’s like they’re both asking, how can art be a container for knowledge, for something beyond the everyday? It’s a beautiful question.