Csaplár Ferenc szerk.: Lajos Kassák / The Advertisement and Modern Typography (1999)

"Beautiful" and "Ugly" Books

other, vest-pocket editions of Marx. Not to mention the cheap "ugly" books meant for mass consumption that were published in opposition to this by short-sighted party people and old-hat publishers, making great profits for the latter. And was there anyone concerned about books, as cultural objects, at home or in exile? Here we are, after three years of emigration, and we have neither an established party, nor a free school based on serious foundations, and we have not fashioned a new book type that would represent our world-view to "militant émigrés". And those who did put out something in this field were unfortunately the so-called "mad activists". But they have at least tried to dress their work in clothes tailored for themselves, and this they did here in Vienna, where they are more broke than ever at home. And all those are wrong who say that these works were not understood and served no other purpose than satisfy their makers' leisure. No greater effect was achieved by either the so-called "ugly" émigré books for the masses or the so-called "beautiful" ones, not to mention the erotic "specialities" hidden between fancy covers. Or if they did, all the worse for the Hungarian reading public. The quest of young artists for a new book type and a new typography is as much a phenomenon of the times as their whole art is. And what they have produced is inimical to the "beautiful" books meant for the parlours and to the "ugly" books meant for the masses, because it just aims to be a tool supporting and mediating the message of the writer. All it aims to be is a characteristic book. BÉCSI MAGYAR ÚJSÁG (VIENNA HUNGARIAN NEWS), AUGUST 25, 1922, PP. 5-6. 2x2 1 (Vienna 1922) Cover, 310x240 mm 8