Ontwerp voor boekband voor Insulinde door D. Wouters en J. van Hulzen c. 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this book cover design for Insulinde on paper, though I couldn’t tell you exactly when. The monochromatic colour scheme, which feels so contemporary to me, is actually a kind of blueprint for the final design, which would have featured multiple colours and textures. I love the contrast between the densely patterned areas of solid black and the open, unfinished spaces. Looking closer, you can see traces of pencil sketching beneath the ink which gives the design a sense of depth and process. See how the repeated use of leaves, plants and animals creates a lush surface, interrupted by the title of the book, as if pushing through the undergrowth. The stylised lions feel both decorative and symbolic, as if the artist is searching for a symbolic language through the accumulation of different images. It makes me think of the work of Paul Klee, where images also seem to hover between representation and abstraction. Ultimately, this is what I love about art, that it gives us space to think, to dream, and to create our own meanings.