Review by Choice Review
An excellent resource, this is the first book in English to introduce the work of an important and underappreciated designer and printmaker. Philosophically and (at times) stylistically joining the Dutch modernist movement of the 1920s, Werkman was both iconoclast and independent voice. His innovative designs and working methods separated design from the strictures of traditional technology. He is alone in his personal use of technology to reject its restraints--armed with his own experience as a printer, he was the only modernist of his time to actually use the press to make his own prints. The best work is sculptural in form, predating the better-known work of American modernists of the 1950s and color-form designers of the 1960s and beyond. The value of this work should be appreciated, as should Werkman's belief that graphic design and typography could be spiritual, optimistic, and vital. Because his studio and much of his life's work were destroyed by the Nazis who executed him at the end of their WW II occupation of the Netherlands, it has been difficult to appropriately assess his contribution. Purvis presents a wonderful compendium of extant druksels (prints constructed from printing matter), tiksels (drawings made with a typewriter), Werkman's experimental magazine The Next Call, brochures, posters, and print series. It is beautifully illustrated in full color. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels. R. M. Labuz Mohawk Valley Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
