Penguin Books commissioned Maria to design a book cover for Joseph Conrad's timeless classic Heart of Darkness.
The brief was short: the cover had to look "modern and different." Maria applied her pin-up process, building exotic flora and fauna, hidden figures and animals, over an antique photographic portrait. With a sitter resembling the book's narrator, Marlow, Maria layered snakes, maps, and skulls - some of the book's most evocative images - to create her unique visual response.
The result was a success, capturing the dark and brooding atmosphere of one of the nineteenth century's most captivating works of literature.
