[melin & österlin] melbi, johan (red.): John Melin ... - Antikvariat Morris

[nitsche, erik]
1. Skepp och sjöfart 2. Luftfart 3. Astronomi 4. Elektricitet 5.
Hjulet 6. Medicin 7. Raketer och rymdfart 8. Kemi 9. Vapen
10. Ord, bild och massmedia 11. Maskinen 12. Fysik
W & W, Stockholm, 1965-66. 120, 120, 112, 112,
112, 112, 112, 112, 112, 112, 112, 112 pages. 4to (27 x
17,5 cm). Printed laminated card covers. 12 volumes,
complete, in good condition. Illustrated in colour and
black and white throughout. Production and typography
by Erik Nitsche. Printed in Switzerland. Text in
Swedish.
”Nitsche helped pioneer the concept of design authorship
– and not just the navel-gazing books about and
for designers (he never published a monograph) – but
books that had broad audiences. Of course design was
endemic to every subject he covered and his books
were designed in an elegant contemporary manner.
Design was but a frame with which he presented
unique themes. Nitsche’s goal with, for example, The
New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention,
was to avail the reader of fascinating, subjects, like
“A History of Ships and Seafaring” and “A History of
Archaelogical Discoveries.” Through accessible formats
these books were (and still are) “reader friendly”
because the typographic and graphic entry-points
were conceived to provide unique sensory experiences.
This may sound a bit pretentious, but Nitsche’s books
were anything but. Instead their elegance was a point
of pride and a selling point for the reader. Another
way to describe them is “generous:” Nitsche was
indeed generous with white space and pictures alike.
Whether addressing physics, occult sciences, fashion,
or social progress, each 112-page volume generously
presented a wealth of material in a sophisticated but
not haughty manner. He was passionate for images, which he personally selected for every book to
heighten understanding and provide rational narrative flow. The type - he was compulsive about finding
the perfect cuts of the quintessential faces - was classic, always justified, but routinely with a modern
tweak in the column width and leading. Every book also contained a handsome timeline (he was
truly the master of timelines) as a contextual signpost. /.../ After moving to Geneva in the early 1960s
Nitsche Founded eni, s.a. (Erik Nitsche International) to produce some of the finest illustrated history
books ever designed. The first series, a twelve volume The New Illustrated Library of Science and
Invention, with a multilingual print run of over two million copies, covered the histories of communication,
transport, photography, architecture, astronomy, and the machine, and flight. Like Dynamic
America, the pictures drove the text (although the text was written by esteemed authors). Nitsche dove
headlong into the research himself and unearthed thousands of rare and never-before-seen archival images.
In his mind’s eye he saw precisely how each image in concert with the next would tell the story.”
Steven Heller. See also Eye No. 27, Vol. 7, Spring 1998 pp. 64–77.
SEK975 / €116