The Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Century

What is the most beautiful Czech book published since 1900? This was shown in a poll that was specially attached to the annual competition of the Museum of Czech Literature and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic The Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year on the occasion of the jubilee year of the competition.

The books that ranked in the top ten are on display in the exhibition Identity - the story of Czech graphic design at the Kampa Museum, which will be open until 2 February 2025.

The Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Century poll was announced by the Museum of Czech Literature and the Identity Project, which deals with Czech graphic design in public space. Dozens of professionals in the field of design and visual arts were contacted: graphic designers, illustrators, publishers, typographers, art and design educators and others and asked what they thought were the most beautiful books of the 20th century. From their voting came ten finalists - that is, the books that received the most votes - and one clear winner.

"The initial fear that we would get a long list of books in which none would be repeated did not realised. On the contrary, it turned out that there are certain clues, sort of cultural stalwarts that resonate more than others," said Filip Blažek, co-author of the Identity project and graphic designer.

The results were announced on 15 January 2025 at the Kampa Museum, which also co-organised the award ceremony.

The winner was a book rarity, Váchal's monumental Šumava Dying and Romantic from 1931. It is the result of many years of wandering through Šumava mountains in Bohemia, which Josef Váchal admired for their mystery and virginity, but at the same time feared their gradual devastation by human civilization. He made the book with his own hands from thousands of letters cut by him and decorated it with seventy colour woodcuts. The 65 x 49 cm volume weighs twenty kilograms and Váchal published only 11 copies.

Results

1st place

Josef Váchal: Šumava umírající a romantická (Šumava Dying and Romantic) (1931)
Graphic design and illustrated by the author

2nd place

J. F. Cooper: Poslední Mohykán (The Last of the Mohicans) (1972)
Graphic design by Milan Kopřiva, illustrated by Jiří Šalamoun

3rd - 5th place

Lewis Carroll: Alenka v říši divů a za zrcadlem (Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland) (1983)
Graphic design by Oldřich Hlavsa, illustrations by Markéta Prachatická

Oldřich Hlavsa, Karel Wick: Typographia I.-III. (1976 - 1986)
Graphic design by Oldřich Hlavsa

Vítězslav Nezval: ABECEDA (Alphabet) (1926)
Graphic design by Karel Teige, photomontages by Karel Teige, Karel Paspa

6th - 10th place

Vojtěch Preissig: Aucassin and Nicolete (1931)
Graphic design and illustrated by the author.

Milena Lamarová: Design a plastické hmoty (Design and Plastic) (1972)
Graphic design by Václav Cigler

Josef Váchal: Krvavý román (The Bloody Novel) (1924)
Graphic design and illustrated by the author.

Miroslav Šašek: This is London (1959)
Graphic design and illustrated by the author.

Jiří Trnka: Zahrada (The Garden) (1962)
Graphic design by Lumír Ševčík, illustrated by the author