Book Cover!

Influencing the public through photographic images has been possible since the introduction of large-scale, low-cost printing technology. However, it was only after universal suffrage was achieved following the First World War that rival parties in Austria developed strategies to fully harness this potential.
Escalating political conflicts eventually led to the burning of Vienna’s Palace of Justice in 1927—and, at the same time, to a flood of publications filled with propaganda, as was evident even on their covers. More than 150 examples of book covers, from across the political spectrum, show the intense struggle to win the public’s favor. This exhibition, the first of its kind in Austria, demonstrates the experimental approach to combining photographs and typography in books, brochures, and booklets during that period.