Book Cover, United States of America, XXXII International Biennial Exposition of Art, Venice, Italy

Elaine Lustig Cohen became a successful graphic designer in the 1950s and 1960s, a time when the field was still nascent in the United States and few women were part of it. She had trained as a fine artist and worked in the office of her husband Alvin Lustig, the renowned modernist graphic designer, as a secretary and paste-up girl but she never designed in that time. Upon his death in 1955, she took over his commissions, receiving an immediate entree into the field, and soon began earning her own work and opened a one-person home studio. Fascinated by European avant-garde art, Cohen incorporated this sensibility into her designs. This book cover for the catalog of the American pavilion at the Thirty-second Venice Biennial in 1964 showcases this modern style. The red and blue text on a white ground with repetition of “USA” displays patriotism and exhibits the modernist call for pure form without excessive ornamentation. Though successful with well-respected institutions, she gave up her design practice in the mid-1960s to pursue a passion for painting. In this brief decade, she had already left a mark on the graphic design world, particularly in her book jackets for the publishing house Meridian and others.

Book Cover, United States of America, XXXII International Biennial Exposition of Art, Venice, Italy; Designed by Elaine Lustig Cohen (American, 1927–2016); USA; offset lithograph on paper; H x W: 27.8 × 43.2 cm (10 15/16 in. × 17 in.); Gift of Tamar Cohen and Dave Slatoff; 1993-31-62