The New Yorker covers that never made it on show in new book

The New Yorker is rightly famous for its witty, clever and often quite powerful front covers, but a book out next week gives a glimpse into those illustrations that didn’t make the cut. Building on the success of the blog of the same name and compiled by the magazine’s art director Francoise Mouly Blown Covers is a great insight into the creative process at one of the world’s most influential publications.

Whether rejected for being too crude (Monica Lewinsky sucking a presidential lollipop or justice shown trussed up S&M style ), too random (the Pope as Marilyn Mornoe), too controversial (the shadow of a black and white man passing each other shown as a stick-up/two American soldiers kissing in Afghanistan) they nevertheless form an alternative record of Amercian preoccupations over the years.