The man who received peace as a prize

The cover for the November 18, 2023 issue of De Standaard der Letteren was dedicated to Salman Rushdie, a writer recently honored with the German Peace Prize. Although the design was ultimately not selected, it delved into the theme of duality present in Rushdie’s thank-you speech upon receiving the award. The decision to maintain a black-and-white palette was a deliberate reference to his impaired vision in one eye.

The cover concept revolved around the exploration of contrast. Words and texts were strategically concealed beneath black rectangles, visually mirroring Salman Rushdie’s physical state while also conveying his commitment to freedom of expression. Despite the complete text being present on the cover, it remained hidden beneath white and grey rectangles, paying with the idea of censorship that the writer had been confronted to during his career.

Typography played a crucial role in the design, with selected words extracted from Rushdie’s speech. These words, forming a manifesto, were intentionally contradictory, pairing concepts like ‘life’ and ‘death,’ ‘war’ and ‘peace,’ and unconventional pairings such as ‘intoxicant’ and ‘elixir.’ Rather than adopting a polarized order, the words were intermixed to offer a more nuanced perspective on Rushdie’s speech, highlighting his critical thinking. As a result, readers could encounter combinations such as ‘death win peace lies enemy elixir daring’.

To infuse an element of fairy tale and imagination, the cover incorporated the title of a hypothetical novel mentioned in Rushdie’s speech about winning a peace prize. This powerful sentence not only added a touch of fantasy and lightness but also conveyed a critical perspective on peace, particularly in the context of contemporary perceptions and through the lens of institutions like the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.