Theory at Work | 53el lissitzky Cover and
spread from Dlia Golosa (For the
Voice, or Read Out Loud), 1923.
Lissitzky collaborated with Russian
futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky
to produce this collection of
Mayakovsky’s poetry.^1 Unlike his
compatriot Rodchenko, who often
had to handcraft his letterforms,
world-traveler Lissitzky was able
to harness the superior printing
expertise of Berlin in this book.
Lissitzky took full creative advan-
tage of the use of letterpress
typography, forming innovative
abstract images through standard
typographic forms. To emphasize
the functionality of the piece, he
created a thumb index to guide
the reader.
1 For a discussion of Dlia Golosa and other
constructivist books, see Margit Rowell and
Deborah Wye, “Constructivist Book Design:
Shaping the Proletarian Conscience,” in The
Russian Avant-Garde Book: 1910–1934 (New
York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002), 50–59.