Illustration: A Visual History, Abrams, 2008

by Steven Heller (Author), Seymour Chwast (Author)

‘This lively visual history of the art of illustration, by the foremost historian of graphic design and a well-known illustrator, joins the authors’ previous “Graphic Style” as an indispensable resource for anyone interested in art, design and popular culture. Illustration has long been a significant popular art – and is often more visible, recognizable and memorable than ‘higher’ arts. Editorial and advertising illustration in all its many forms is integral to our understanding of news, views, literature and commerce – it has an impressive history and remains a vital influence on visual culture.This book is a rich chronicle, a celebration and survey of well over a century of illustration. Its innovative approach offers two complimentary ways of presenting the history of the art form: as style (from Victorian to Digital) and as form (ranging from political work to the erotic). It deftly reveals the visual aneurisms, quirks and tics that characterize drawn, painted and digitized illustrations in different styles and places leading illustrator in historical context’