Image Statistics Peter Alma

05 January 2015 - 12:01

A beautiful publication, which certainly qualifies for the Best Dutch Book Designs, is Beeldstatistiek Peter Alma by Wim Jansen (author) and Chang Chi Lan-Ying (designer).

But is it a book? In a box there are 68 loose sheets with image statistics about things like 'Passengers and goods transport at Schiphol', 'Using the telephone in Amsterdam' or 'Cleaning the city by City cleaning'.

In the 'box' there is also a brochure with a biographical sketch and 'bibliography' by the communist artist Peter Alma, who was best known for his murals on the Amstelstation in Amsterdam and in the Postmuseum in The Hague.

Alma (1886-1969) learned the trade in Vienna from Otto Neurath and in Russia from Bureau Izostat. In 1933 he set up his own agency for image statistics in the Netherlands. He received commissions from the Municipality of Amsterdam, the KLM, Fokker, the Rotterdam Harbor, the AVRO and the Nederlandsche Bond van Onderwijzend Personeel.

Alma's work is not inferior to that of his friend and teacher Gerd Arntz. Parts of the correspondence between Arntz and Alma from the Arntz archive at the IISH are fully included in this book. The letters of Alma at the IISH are also kept in the archive of the Soviet Union-members Wim and Augusta de Wit and in other collections.

Publisher De Buitenkant published the book:

IISH Collections | Bookblog | Wim Jansen - Photo by Uitgeverij Buitenkant