Chapterhouse: Dune

This is a book cover designed in 1982 by Frederic Marvin (1932-2013) for the 6th installment of the Dune series, Chapterhouse: Dune, written by Frank Herbert. 

Marvin was an illustrator active in the '70s and '80s known for his work on Broadway posters, magazine covers, album covers, and children's books- especially for Disney. 

Frederic's work here is a polyptych painting, split into three parts by the front cover, spine. and back cover. The painting depicts imagery of the visions, settings and characters in the vast and epic story. When this book is placed side by side with its counterpart volumes in the full series, the design of the covers turns into a hexaptych, an image comprised of 6 panels. 

The typeface of the title is ITC Avant Garde Gothic Paneuropean Extra Light, a geometric sans serif designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase in 1970. The condensed weights were designed four years later by Ed Benguiat. 

The type featured on the cover seems to be an alternate, based on the tight kerning of the letters and the slanted capital “A”. The sleek, tall, geometric modernist form subtly reflects the subject matter of the science fiction within the pages, being set thousands of years in the future with the mature philosophical and political themes of the author.

This trade paperback edition for Berkley Books was published in 1985.