Bridging Many Worlds Of Book Design

Wolfgang Lederer, schooled in Europe at Leipzig’s Academy for Graphic Design and Book Arts, Académie Scandinave in Paris, and Officina Fragensis in Prague, is known as the prize-winning designer of many University of California Press books, as well as the designer and illustrator of many of Harold Berliner’s sumptuous letterpress book and broadsides. As chairman of California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) Graphic Design department for four decades, Lederer’s inspirational teaching and encouragement was appreciated by his graphic design students and colleagues not just while studying or working under him but all through their subsequent careers.

Chosen for exhibit during National Print Month, the Center is honored to show the many sides of this delightful and extraordinary book arts master: illustrator, designer, and teacher. Other recent recognition for his work includes Bridging Two Worlds in Graphic Design, an oral history published by Bancroft Library in 1992 which can be found in the Book Club of California’s collection, and the library named in his honor at the San Francisco campus of CCAC.

Highlights of the exhibition include important milestones in book design by Lederer. Among them, two books for the University of California Press: The Country House in English Renaissance Poetry by William A. McClung, and even more importantly, Literary Architecture: Essays Toward a Tradition, by Ellen Eve Frank. The latter book was singled out by UC Press to exemplify the best book design from its entire list of hundreds of books. Just to page through these books is an education in book design. Lovers of fine press books will revel in the delicious illustrations and consummate design from Lederer’s studio for Harold Berliner, such as in An Alphabet of Shakespeare Figures or The Pickwick Papers, and Earl Emelson’s Heron House, in The Prisoner of Chillon by the poet Byron (see illustration).
 

Curator Steve Reoutt was born in Shanghai to Russian parents in 1938, and came to America at age 12. He studied at CCAC from 1957 – 61, and began teaching there at Lederer’s request. This led him to a full-time teaching career, specializing in the field of graphic design and illustration history, which he currently teaches at CCAC. A painter and monotype artist, Reoutt also serves on the board of AIGA/SF (American Institute of Graphic Artists, San Francisco chapter). AIGA recently sponsored his lecture series on the history of graphic design in the Bay Area.
 

This is the third exhibition at the San Francisco Center for the Book to pay special homage to distinguished book artists of the Bay Area. Earlier exhibitions featured UC Berkeley’s pioneering printmaker Karl Kasten and the books and prints of artists Anna and Arne Wolf. For more information, please call the Center at 415 565 0545.

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