The art of book illustration in Kyrgyzstan until the turn of the 50s and 60s was almost exclusively represented by the works of L. Ilyina, who mainly collaborated with central publishing houses. In the 60s, due to the overall rise of publishing and the general culture of book graphics in the country, as well as local prerequisites—strengthening the printing base and the emergence of specialists in the field of artistic book design—book illustration developed more diversely in the republic and achieved significant successes.
L. Ilyina remains the leader in this field, having become a well-known Soviet master of illustration. Her vibrant talent, serious school of craftsmanship, honed under the classic engraver V. A. Favorovsky and continuously improved, along with her broad general culture, have determined a high level of professionalism and a wide range of her creative interests. Ilyina's method of working in the book is based on strict discipline of imaginative thinking, deep penetration into the essence of the images and styles of literary works, clear ideas about the architectural integrity of the book ensemble, and an acute sense of graphic material.
Her free command of drawing and composition techniques allows her to work fruitfully on book prints (kislography, less often linocut and lithography). Guided by the most general idea of the design on paper, she immediately carves the image on a boxwood board or linoleum, infusing it with emotional content during the work with a burin.
A pivotal moment for Ilyina was her work on the illustrations for Lesya Ukrainka's book "The Forest Song" (1960), where she also demonstrated her abilities in the artistic construction of the book. The dust jacket featuring an image of a mysterious forest thicket and the Mavka, embodying the bright human essence, the spine of the book with a motif of a broken branch, illustrations that metaphorically reveal key moments of the plot, and elegant endings—all of this not only corresponds to the spatial, associative-philosophical world of the poetic drama-fairy tale but also defines the image of the book as a whole. It seems to contain that "silvery ringing" that Ilyina heard while reading the pearl of Ukrainian poetry. Especially expressive and filled with meaning and rhythm of the plot's movement are the finely cut opening decorations for the three acts of the drama. The transparent, shimmering tone of the first decoration corresponds to the calm lyrical beginning of the poetic narrative. The dynamics of the image sharply increase towards the second act, discharging with the depiction of a storm in the third, foreshadowing a tragic resolution. "The Forest Song," designed and illustrated by Ilyina, who found "an astonishingly precise plastic approach that reveals the structure of the drama," became an example of a holistic solution to the artistic appearance of the book.
Ilyina successfully created wood engravings for the title spread, title pages, decorations, and endings for M. Auezov's book "The Path of Abai" (Moscow: Sov. Writer, 1961), illustrations for the novels "Kanybek" by K. Jantoshiev (Frunze: Kirghizgosizdat, 1962) and "Sons' Rebellion" by S. Babaevsky (Moscow: Sov. Writer, 1968). In these works, there is a noticeable tendency towards the expressive representation of silhouettes and the free arrangement of illustrations on the book page. This principle is also applied in the successful illustration of the book "The Old Man and the Sea" by E. Hemingway (Frunze: Kyrgyz State Pedagogical, 1963), published in the Kyrgyz language. In the linocuts of this cycle, the main focus is on human will. The bold composition of the image, the large strokes of the linocut, the black-and-white contrasts, and the "clumsiness" of the form itself (the old man's back seems almost unbending)—all contribute to creating a rhythm of the image that seems to reflect the arduous struggle of man against nature.
