Merz to Emigré and Beyond

Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century

by Steven Heller

Merz to Emigré and Beyond is an historical survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and newspapers all the way from the early twentieth century to the present day. The book features a unique selection of international publications from Europe and the USA including Merz (1920s), View (1940s), East Village Other (1960s), Punk (1970s), Raw (1980s) and Emigré (1990s).

The design of these magazines, often raucous and undisciplined, was as groundbreaking as the ideas they disseminated. Many were linked to controversial artistic, literary and political movements, such as Dada, Surrealism, Modernism, the New Left and Deconstruction. They contain the work of many leading experimental artists and designers of their time – from Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitzky in the 1920s and 30s, to Art Spiegelman and Rudy Vander Lans in the 1980s and 90s.

Paperback | 240 pages | Phaidon Press |  2014

Steven Heller is a Senior Art Director at The New York Times and Co-Chair of the MFA/Design Program of the School of Visual Arts in New York. A respected authority in the design world, he has written and co-authored numerous publications, including Paul Rand, also published by Phaidon.