Markedsstaten, book cover
(Ove K. Pedersen)
(Ove K. Pedersen)
For the publication of Ove Kaj Pedersen’s book Markedsstaten, published by Hans Reitzels Forlag, I worked on a cover design built around a powerful central theme: an almost edge-to-edge image of the painting Hybrid Human by artist Wanda Koop.
The symbolism of the image centres on the relationship between the individual and the state, a relationship strongly reinforced by the interplay between the elements within the image and its overall composition. The figure in the foreground represents the individual, while the large, white, and perhaps partly undefined floating form that occupies part of the background is conceived as a representation of the state.
From the CBS website, in connection with Ove Kaj Pedersen’s doctoral defence:
“In Markedsstaten, the emergence of the modern Danish state from the seventeenth century to 1910 is analysed. The book demonstrates how legislators, as well as historians and legal theorists, developed a narrative about the state and its emergence in which the distinction between the state, the market, and the individual became constitutive of what is referred to as the modern state.
The book gives attention to all three components, but places particular emphasis on the emergence of the free worker, and thus the individual who, through their labour, gains access to social recognition and legal protection.”
The symbolism of the image centres on the relationship between the individual and the state, a relationship strongly reinforced by the interplay between the elements within the image and its overall composition. The figure in the foreground represents the individual, while the large, white, and perhaps partly undefined floating form that occupies part of the background is conceived as a representation of the state.
From the CBS website, in connection with Ove Kaj Pedersen’s doctoral defence:
“In Markedsstaten, the emergence of the modern Danish state from the seventeenth century to 1910 is analysed. The book demonstrates how legislators, as well as historians and legal theorists, developed a narrative about the state and its emergence in which the distinction between the state, the market, and the individual became constitutive of what is referred to as the modern state.
The book gives attention to all three components, but places particular emphasis on the emergence of the free worker, and thus the individual who, through their labour, gains access to social recognition and legal protection.”
