Rudolph Koch

A biography and study of Rudolph Koch. Koch was a master of lettering and the design of typefaces. He worked in the tradition of William Morris and Eric Gill - using ink on parchment or with woodblocks, and often using the method of the Middle Ages to apply letterforms to pages, bookbindings, woven and embroidered material and objects in metal and wood. At the same time, he was employed by Stempel, one of the most progressive typefoundries in Europe, designing over 20 new typefaces ranging from simple and elegant Roman designs to striking new expressionist examples of the German black-letter form. Illustrated with nearly 300 examples of Koch's work, Gerald Cinamon's text looks beyond the - often eulogistic and uncritical - contemporary accounts of his output, to examine in detail the work and complex character of one of the most influential figures in 20th-century art books.