“Konfettaskar” och “typografiska läckerbitar” eller funktionalistisk formgivning? om Eva Billow som bilderbokskonstnär och grafiker

Abstract

Eva Billow as picture book artist and graphic designer. The 1940’s and 50’s was a dynamic period for the Nordic picture book. There is a general aspiration to explore picture book aesthetics, a need to find imagery and expressions capturing a new era. In my article, I will discuss how these ideas are expressed in the illustrator and graphic artist Eva Billow’s picture books. Her illustration style is originated in a modernist tradition of simplicity, clarity and typographic precision. Also, an idea about books as an art form is evident through her production. Eva Billow’s production covers a wide field of graphic design, from picture books, cartoons and illustrations to book art, posters and advertisements. I will discuss Billow’s use of aesthetics that can be related to functionalist ideas and will further place this approach in a larger context in the history of Swedish graphic design. The general interest in graphic design and new printing techniques among picture book illustrators can also be seen as a part of a tendency within Nordic Modernism where the artist aspired to make arts a part of the society. But the appeal for the picture book among the young Nordic artists and authors, prior and after the Second World War, also expresses an inter-artistic tendency, where the limits between different forms of art are explored. Keywords: picturebook, graphic design, functionalism, modernism, illustration history, literary criticism