Display Case 17 (Kruger)

Before she became an '80s art star, Barbara Kruger made her living as a graphic designer (she worked, in fact, for the photography journal Aperture in the 1960s). Content aside, her photo and text-based works reflect a solid grounding in modernist design, the Bauhaus and the colors of Constructivism. Part of what is interesting about her aesthetic is her ability to adapt her signature red, black and white, Futura Bold Italic style to everything from postcards and matchbook covers to billboards and room-sized installations.

The cover design for Susan Rubin Suleiman's book, Subversive Intent, is an intentional copy of one of Kruger's best-known pieces, Untitled (Your body is a battleground) 1989, and is adapted with the artists permission. Wade Clark Roof's A Generation of Seekers, on the other hand, constitutes a more generic interpretation. Although the design mainly involves type and a vertical dividing line, it nevertheless echoes Kruger's visual style.

Title: Subversive Intent
Author: Susan Rubin Suleiman
Publisher: Harvard University Press 1990
Designer / Illustrator: Gwen Frankfeldt.

Title: A Generation of Seekers
Author: Wade Clark Roof
Publisher: HarperCollins 1993
Designer / Illustrator: Raul Cabra.