The photographer Nan Goldin has been one of the art world’s most visible presences for the better part of two decades – I would add, ‘as much for her lifestyle as for her images’, but the two are so intertwined as to be one. Ever since ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ was published by Aperture in 1986, Goldin’s trenchant, empathic color photographs have come to symbolize bohemian culture and life in the age of AIDS. Not surprisingly, book covers using her work are found primarily on fiction concerning love, loss and desire. KB

Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. Read more about the project.