Book Covers
A selection of reimagined book covers.
The Book
The Bell Jar
The Author
Sylvia Plath
Concept One
Playing with themes of loneliness, isolation, and segregation, using common colours of 1950's psychiatric wards to create a scene of confinement and emptiness to invoke an unsettling feel. The dark green creates a weighted environment, with the typefaces contributing to the heaviness of Esther's experiences.
Concept Two
Creating a Rorschach-inspired motif from fig leaf iconography, speaking to mental illness and the claustrophobia described by Plath, as well as the suffocating societal pressure and invasion of depression. The yellow-green invokes a sickly feel, while the contrasting fonts speak to the imbalance and unsteadiness of Esther's mental health.
The Book
I Who Have Never Known Men
The Author
Jacqueline Harpman
Concept
This cover explores the novel’s psychological confinement and existential ambiguity. The fragmented staircase acts as a central metaphor,
suggesting both the illusion of escape and the repetitive, cyclical nature of entrapment. A stark, monochrome palette reinforces the bleakness of the women’s environment, void of warmth, context, or time - while the single, diffused burst of yellow light introduces a distant, almost unreachable notion of hope or knowledge. The composition balances tension and emptiness, capturing a world that is both physically and emotionally inescapable.
The Book
The Wedding People
The Author
Alison Espach
Concept
This concept is all about absence. The iconic emerald green dress is draped over an empty chair, becoming both the focal point and mirroring the emotional narrative - the emptiness Phoebe experiences, the disconnect for her surroundings. The fabric speaks to the nuances of the emotions - heavy and pooled, to reflect the emotional
burden and depression. There's a sense of stillness, exhaustion, and quiet depression in how it sits.
The luxurious shine also hint to the extravagance of the hotel and the wedding, and the lightness that come with it.
The type pushes in the opposite direction, big, bold, a bit performative which ties into the excess and indulgence of the wedding itself. Overall, it deliberately avoids that bright, celebratory wedding energy. It’s quieter and a bit more introspective, trying to capture that tension in the book between what’s happening on the surface and what’s really going on underneath.
