Back cover from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell)

Back cover from Igra v adu (A Game in Hell) by Kazimir Malevich is a significant example of Russian Cubo-Futurist book design created during the pivotal years of 1913–14. This particular piece is a lithograph, incorporating detailed lithographed manuscript text, and serves as the concluding element of an illustrated book containing 28 unique prints. Produced in 1913 and published in 1914, this work captures Malevich at a critical junction in his career, just before he fully transitioned to Suprematism.

The creation of experimental books, using lithography for both image and handwritten script, was central to the Russian avant-garde’s goal of integrating art into everyday life. Malevich and his contemporaries employed this technique to bypass traditional publishing routes, resulting in inexpensive, visually abrasive prints that defied classical aesthetic standards. The back cover, like the rest of the publication, utilizes bold graphical elements and integrated text, demonstrating how the book became a new canvas for radical artistic expression, blending visual art with the conceptual framework of the text.

The original illustrated book, Igra v adu, marks a profound moment of collaboration and radical experimentation in the development of modern art. Its structure, composed entirely of lithographic reproductions of drawings and handwritten text, showcases the period's commitment to materiality and the raw energy of the manuscript form. This piece of Russian graphic design, published 1914, is preserved in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, ensuring continued access to this seminal work of the early avant-garde.