Book Description

This dissertation proposes the application of Le Corbusier's conception of the architectural promenade to a selection of four distinctive illustrated books conceived and produced by Iliazd (Ilia Zdanevich, 1894-1975, born Tiflis, Georgia). The four books examined in this study are Pismo (1948), Poésie de mots inconnus (1949), Chevaux de minuit (1956), and Le Courtisan grotesque (1974). While all of Iliazd's editions featured carefully conceived structures and integrations of typeset texts and engraved elements, as opposed to the largely generic designs of his contemporaries, each of these four books in particular presents successive variations of atypical page foldings. The experimental structures of these books allow for their justifiable designation as architectural constructions, as scholars have previously recognized. The complex architectonics of the books demands a critical vocabulary of the kind Le Corbusier's architectural promenade, which has been broadly proposed as the basis for the structures of his buildings, provides. The architectural promenade in effect asserts a chain of elements which guide the explorer of Le Corbusier's buildings to successive perspective points, which present views of internal and external spaces during an ascent from entry level to rooftop. Flora Samuel wrote a monograph (The Elements of Le Corbusier's Architectural Promenade, 2010) in which she proposed five stages for the promenade. Modifications of her stages are used for the present study, altered for the transition from building to book. These stages, some of which are descriptive and some analytical, while presented as the likely experience of a general viewer, are based on my individual understanding of all the details of the structures of these books. The complex structures, while fascinating, are not an end in themselves, but rather the enabling support of an individual aesthetic experience. This study asserts that the architectural promenade illuminates the experience of Iliazd's unique conception of the illustrated book, enabling a hitherto unparalleled appreciation of their complexity.