Oblong quarto. (17)ff. The first book of the press. Fifteen plates by Uphoff relate in dramatic expressionist form the story of the creation and fall of mankind. Each of the text plates bears an initial of sharp lines and an array of colors. Each of the illustrations presents an exemplar of continental Modernism par excellence by wedding together the fluidity and softness of the human figure often associated with Matisse's Fauves with the angularity of the environment familiar to the German Bauhaus, the films of F. W. Murnau, and the English Vorticists. The whole presents a symphonic play of text and image, and a bold return to the Modernist movements that had flourished before the Great War but had somewhat, and temporarily, diminished in its aftermath.

The Worpswede group was founded as an artists' colony in Bremen, Germany, and has been situated as a crucial predecessor to the more recognized Expressionist schools. Uphoff's entry likely arrived among the final works generated by the group, which had after the war begun to dissipate.

Bound in full vellum over boards with motif in gilt to upper panel. Small, faint dampstain to uppermost margin of several leaves; binding shows some bowing and natural toning as well as a couple of minor abrasions to rear cover. Near fine overall.