Universal War

Universal War (Russian: ВсеЛенская Война Ъ) is an artist's book by Aleksei Kruchenykh^[1] published in Petrograd at the beginning of 1916. Despite being produced in an edition of 100 of which only 12 are known to survive,^[2] the book has become one of the most famous examples of Russian Futurist book production, and is considered a seminal example of avant-garde art from the beginning of the twentieth century.^[3]

Published at the height of Russian involvement in World War I (see Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive), the book attempts to echo the chaos and destruction of the war with the chaos and disruption of collage techniques new to the Russian Avant-Garde at the time, and opens with the bleak prophecy "Universal War will take place in 1985". Shortly after the book was published, Kruchenykh left Petrograd to live in a hut in the Caucasus to avoid the draft.

"One of the most outstanding merits of the album- a dadaist work in the fullest sense- is its successful realization of Kruchenykh's concept of collage as an artistic method transcending mere technique and capable of metaphorically expressing the 'discordant concordance' of the age."^[4]

The book is an early attempt to link zaum poetry (often translated as 'transrational' or 'beyonsense' poetry) with 'zaum' images. In the foreword, Kruchenykh refers to the book as 'Poetic zaum shaking the hand of the pictorial zaum'.^[4]

Universal War is often erroneously credited as a collaboration between Kruchenykh and his wife, the artist Olga Rozanova. Whilst the pair often collaborated on artist's books-including A Game In Hell (1914) and Transrational Boog (1915)- most authorities now consider the work to be by Kruchenykh alone.^[5][2][6] A series of similar collages – also credited to Kruchenykh – in the book 1918 was published in Tiflis (Tbilisi) in January or February 1917,^[7] whilst Rozanova was still in Moscow and the Verbovka Village Folk Centre working for Malevich and, later, Izo Narkompros.