The Limited Editions Club oxymoron: the affordable livre d’artiste

This paper will present the idiosyncratic publishing model of the Limited Editions Club of New York and will focus on the four books which were illustrated by the British artist Charles Mozley (1914–1991). Founded by George Macy in the depression year of 1929, the Limited Editions Club was a subscription based service committed to supply its members one beautiful book each month, in a limited print run of 1500 copies. The Club has published more than 600 titles over its 80 years of existence and has commissioned a profusion of prominent artists, illustrators and designers like Matisse, Picasso, W. A. Dwiggins, Giovanni Mardersteig and, later, Cartier-Bresson and Mapplethorpe.

Charles Mozley illustrated four books for the Limited Editions Club: Man and Super­man by G.B. Shaw in 1962, Galsworthy’s The Man of Property in 1964, The Invisible Man by H.G Wells in 1967 and The Captain’s Daughter and Other Stories by Pushkin in 1971.

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Cătălina Zlotea is a PhD student in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. Her research investigates the life and work of Charles Mozley, artist, illus­trator, printmaker, and designer.

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