Warja Honegger-Lavater

   Fig 1,2,3 (above)  Little Red Riding Hood by Warja Honegger-Lavater

Miguel Tanco mentioned in his post last week the conceptual interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood by Warja Honegger-Lavater (1965), so I feel it is a good time to share this wonderful work.

                                      Fig 4 (above) Warja Honegger-Lavater  and Gottfried Honegger

                                                                             Fig 5 (above) Warja Honegger-Lavater 

When I think of Warja Honegger-Lavater's version of Little Red, I am reminded of Leo Lionni's 'Little Blue and Little Yellow' (1959) as it has the same symbolic and abstract approach and both are very map-like. I wanted to find out whose work had come first and it is Leo's 'Little Blue and Little Yellow', but I have no way of knowing if Warja had seen or been inspired by Leo's work or whether it was a coincidence and product of the culture that two works so similar in style should emerge within 6 years of each other.
Little Red Riding Hood is not the first of Warja's works in this style, as she had published a version of William Tell in 1962. Warja's books are notable and unique because they were accordion books and had no text apart from the key of symbols.

Warja Honegger-Lavater (1913-2007) studied at Zurich School of Applied Arts before beginning her successful career as a graphic designer. She married artist and designer Gottfried Honegger and together they had two daughters. She worked for 14 years for the youth magazine Jeunesse (1944-58). In 1958 she moved to New York where she continued her work as a graphic designer in 1962 MoMA published her accordion book William Tell, she went on to develop this concept with a series of fairy tale accordion books.

Using a non-text based interpretation of folk tales is really interesting and clever because it allows the story to be returned to the oral form, not constrained or 'bullied' by the text. Perfect for a child to engage with and construct the story, you can see how small fingers would move around the coloured dots, making sense of it and retelling/ reinventing the tale that they knew so well.

Miguel Tanco, Caperucita Roja

Fig 1(above): Miguel Tanco, Caperucita Roja 2009

Miguel Tanco shares some of his thoughts, decisions and working methods used when approaching this classic tale for Edelvives in 2009. Caperucita Roja written by Pepe Maestro, illustrated by Miguel Tanco was part of an interesting collection, written and illustrated reinterpretations of children's classics.

"I guess the first thing we do when we were commissioned a classic is to see the different versions that have been made, especially the most original and daring. There will be hundreds, thousands of versions in different countries, including the vision of Gustave Doré, Kveta Pakovska, Nicoletta Ceccoli or Annalaura Cantone, and the very remarkable conceptual work with pictograms by Honegger-Lavater Warja."

The best way to start is that proposed by Maurice Sendak:

"An illustrator in my own mind — and this is not a truth of any kind — is someone who so falls in love with writing that he wishes he had written it, and the closest he can get to is illustrating it. And the next thing you learn, you have to find something unique in this book, which perhaps even the author was not entirely aware of. And that’s what you hold on to, and that’s what you add to the pictures: a whole 'Other Story' that you believe in, that you think is there." Maurice Sendak

Fig 2 (above): Miguel Tanco, Caperucita Roja 2009

"There's something that disturbed me in caperucita. I guess that by now everyone knows that riding hood is a history of oral tradition and then told-changed by Perrault and later Grimm. At first it was a story to warn teenagers of the trickery of men, hence the archetype of the black wolf to symbolize the adult male wild, evil in the world, perhaps a touch of racism the black man.
I explored the stereotypes of good and evil, and above all, the colors assigned to the characters. I heeded the advice of M. Sendak and decided from there that the wolf would not be black, it would be white and caperucita would perhaps African black carnation.
Talking to the publishing company the thinking was that it was best to develop the character as a gypsy. More close to us,  a part of our culture.
This opened a new door and gave the story a twist." 

Fig 3 (above): Miguel Tanco, Caperucita Roja 2009

"The characters would all be gypsies with their wagons, brightly colored traditional dresses and ornaments. It would also be a paradox that have no fixed home and are nomads, a roaming characteristic that is usually the wolfs.
Before I started the drawings, I looked for information on the Roma people, I read about racism and persecution, I explored their history.
As a ritual I keep a plastic folder which I label with the name of the book, to which I add any material remotely related, the history, photos, ads, pieces of colored paper, fabrics . . ."  Miguel Tanco

                         Fig 4 (above): Miguel Tanco, Caperucita Roja 2009

References

Fig 1,2,3,4: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Caperucita-Little-Riding-Colorin-Colorado/dp/8426371779

http://migueltanco.com/
http://www.edelvives.com/
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak