Illustrator Nominee: Slovenia

Lila Prap
Slovenia, Illustrator

Lila Prap was born in 1955 in Celje, Slovenia. Following graduation from the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geology, she worked on architectural projects and as an interior decorator for public buildings. After a period of teaching, she became a graphic designer, caricaturist and satirical writer, and was published in newspapers and magazines.

In the early 1990s she became an illustrator of children's books. Her experience as an architect and designer stood her in good stead. She is attentive to all the details of a book's design and production: the size of a book, paper colour and texture, positioning of both words and characters on the page, and all aspects of the composition of scenes. Brightly coloured backgrounds and strong black outlines are characteristic of her work, but these are softened by the strokes of a brush, and an impression of organic growth is increased by the roundness of her forms. However, this careful composition is accompanied by playful and spontaneous effects, heightening a seemingly casual effort.

She writes much of her own texts, allowing her to play with the relationship between word and picture, and with language itself. These language fantasy plays of Lila Prap are often also real semiotic parables, concerning linguistic construction of reality and the cognitive powers of language. Readers have to deal - through humorous plays of language and imagination - with environmental and sexual problems, with the problem of truth and untruth, with uniform treatment of everyday life in media, with false values, and with the problem of stereotypes and individual identity. Yet, Prap's work remains approachable and humorous, as in Male živali where each little creature is affectionately endowed with character and individuality. Male živali has been adapted for children's dance theatre, and other books of Prap's have been adapted for puppet theatre. Mednarodni živalski slovar is a highly original work which established Prap's international reputation. In it, animal names and sounds from many countries are shown in words, but all attached to the same picture of an animal, showing diversity and yet sameness.