MEDICAL BOOKS
COVER DESIGN
Kill or Cure by Steve Parker
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley.
Publication date: 1/11/2013.
This cover is designed to attract attention of general public and medical professionals alike. The frequent symbol of mortality, a skull, is placed on a pile of ancient books with a word 'KILL' in red (imitating splattered blood) above it.
The not-so-subtle cover images promise lots of macabre details.
Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine by Roy Porter
Publisher: Penguin.
Publication date: 26/6/2003.
A fascinating book from the late professor Roy Porter, the author of The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (Medical History of Humanity) and editor of The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine. It would be difficult to find a more descriptive title for such book, and the cover goes with it.
The image is a striking combination of a portrait and an anatomical drawing. Mezzotint, a new printing technique, was perfected in mid-1700. Printing in coloured layers with subtle gradations of shading made anatomical illustrations look like paintings.
History of Medicine
"Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life,
which must be understood before they may be guided."
Philipus A. Paracelsus
The Story of Medicine: From Leeches to Gene Therapy by Mary Dobson
Publisher: Quercus.
Publication date: 3/12/2013.
The image: a 17th-century plague doctor in a protective costume - a primitive gas mask in a shape of a bird’s beak, a long waxed overcoat, a wide-brimmed black hat (which would identify a person as a doctor), leather gloves, boots and a wooden cane (to avoid touching people).
This is a memorable cover referring to the dark period in medical history, which gave way to a renaissance in the arts and sciences in England.
Blood and Guts
by Richard Hollingham
Publisher: BBC Books.
Publication date: 7/8/2008.
Another Blood and Guts, this time A History of Surgery. "A bloodstained tale of blunders, arrogance, mishap and murder" and "a story of stolen corpses, medical fraud and lobotomized patients..."
The cover has been designed to look like an old stained journal or pamphlet, with drawings of some of the activities described in the book. The typography is reminiscent of old posters.
The Knife Man: Blood, Body-snatching and the Birth of Modern Surgery
by Wendy Moore
Publisher: Bantam.
Publication date: 3/4/2006.
A biography of the 18th century pioneering surgeon and father of modern medicine, "British Vesalius", John Hunter.
The cover is vivid in colour, with images of a knife and inevitable skull on the background of anatomical drawings seen through blood-red screen. The title is written in quill pen. Overall, the design should not fail to captivate the potential reader.
An Introduction to the Social History of Medicine: Europe Since 1500 by Dr Keir Waddington
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.
Publication date: 29/11/2011.
This is a "detailed survey of the major debates and themes in the history of western medicine".
The cover reflects the scholoarly content and is appropriately simple but effective: the title is positioned on a vertical red band along the spine; the rest of the cover is a page from Vesalius' manuscript (1514-1564).
Knife, Fire and Boiling Oil:
The Early History of Surgery
by W.J.Bishop
Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd.
Publication date: 31/12/2010.
The image is a very obvious choice for a history of surgery book - rusty surgical instruments from the dark ages, when surgeons were equipped with just 'knives, fire and boiling oil'. DeVinne Ornamental typeface has been chosen for a stronger impact.
These covers represent a very traditional, conservative approach to cover design, using paintings of doctors tending to patients.
A Brief History of Medicine:
From Hippocrates to Gene Therapy
by Paul Strathern
Publisher: Robinson Publishing.
Publication date: 23/6/2005.
The cover designer used a 19th century anatomical painting from Iran portraying a male and a female bodies with exposed internal organs and circulatory systems, as well as smaller images of a skeleton (centre), and human nervous system (upper centre). Quite unusual and resourceful.
Kill or Cure by Steve Parker (described above). This is the second title page. The image is a painting of an anatomical model by a famous French artist Jean-Baptiste Andre Gautier-Dagoty (1740-1786).