About Two Squares and More About Two Squares: In 6 Constructions : A Suprematist Tale

by El Lissitzky

El Lissitzky's first suprematist book is a story about how two squares, one red, one black, transform a world. It is Lissitzky's "scientific romance," an allegory of the fourth dimension and its effect on the three-dimensional world. When it was first published in Berlin in 1922, About 2 Squares presented a radical rethinking of what a book was, demonstrating a new way of organizing typography on a page and relating it to visual images. It marked the beginning of a new graphic art and is among the most important publications in the history of the avant-garde in typography and graphic design.

This facsimile limited edition is reproduced in letterpress with the English translation printed on a transparent overlay to register over the original Russian.

The commentary, More About 2 Squares , boxed in the same slipcase, provides a detailed analysis of this seminal work. Railing provides a brief historical survey of avant-garde poetry in Russia and shows how the letter/ sound was applied by Lissitzky in About 2 Squares as a corollary to the pictorial images - a relationship that forms the basis of abstract or nonobjective language and painting in Russia, and is the theoretical and creative source and device of Lissitzky's graphic design. Railing's is a study both of the philosophical idea of suprematism and the artistic content of Lissitzky's architectural extension of the suprematist painting of Kazimir Malevich, which he called the Proun, and of its particular role as a sequence of images used to create the story About 2 Squares.

Genres: Art, Design

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 1922

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An avant-garde children's book written in 1920s Russia, in the Suprematism art style. Two squares from outer space, one red, one black, arrive on earth to rebuild it in a new way. Left open-ended, children (and adults) are free to imagine how the squares change the world. The book was revolutionary in book publishing, in it's experimental use of typography and simple imagery. A really cool, unique book for all ages, it also comes with instructions: “Do not read. Take paper, columns, blocks…fold, colour, build.” Printed in English as well as the original Russian.

It's the type of book you can read over and over and over and each time the experience is different. Unfortunately, my copy is a black-and-white facsimile, so I didn't enjoy it as much without the vibrant colors and crisp lines. Of course, the book has deeper meanings about creativity and the world that adults will enjoy. I didn't follow the instructions, so I'd love to try that with a better copy.

[Arvind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like much of European modernism in 1922, Suprematist philosophy reads as quite silly now (I mean, this was a wordless kids book about a Black square that rules a world of black shapes in chaos, but then a Red square crashes into the scene and suddenly we have order - not subtle).

But Russian typography from that era is truly quite striking, even today. Conveying sound and time with just shapes and font is something we seem to owe to artists of that period.

[Miguel Alfonzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feels like a redefinition of what a book can be, like as a visual and ideological narrative rather than a text based traditional story. the typographies and compositions act as functional elements rather than just decorations, which is pretty cool. Also, Lissitzky shows the creation of a new order and the rejection of the bourgeoisie values through the idea of “going out and building” which I think is pretty cool too