Wholesale Pictograms by Warja Lavater - large paperback art book

A wonderful publication from this Swiss pioneer of artist's books / 124-page paperback, 7.7 x 10 inches, co-published by Nieves and 50 Watts in 2023 / features 60 ink pictograms, drawn between 1976 and 1996. An early progenitor of the artist's book genre, Warja Honegger-Lavater was born in Winterthur, Switzerland in 1913. She worked as an illustrator for the magazine Jeunesse from 1944-1958, and moved to New York shortly thereafter where she began a wonderful series of artist's books. These books were published between 1962 and 1971, an exceptionally ripe time for artists to turn to the bookform, a time when the most often cited "first" artist's book also appeared, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962) by Ed Ruscha. All of Honegger-Lavater's books were made using the accordion-fold binding. Her aesthetic has been aptly described as "very clean, very Swiss." Each book tells a story, sequentially, like traditional books, but varying from them by rarely using words.