Cover It Up

3/14-3/24
Like it or not, we judge books by their covers. The great American book machine churns out nearly 200,000 new titles and editions every year — it’s inevitable that our eyes land on the pretty ones. And publishing houses know about our inherent shallowness, which is why graphic designers are in higher demand than break-out novelists. When writers offer their homely narratives, designers give them extreme book makeovers, dressing them in vivid colors, metaphorical images and appropriate fonts. They put naked stories in jackets and send them out into the chilly book market. Some of the best book jackets, covers and designs of 2004 are on display at the University Press of Kansas in Lawrence, where a traveling exhibit showcases more than 70 book designs honored by the Association of American University Presses. Graphic artists have a special challenge in the realm of the university press — they attempt to sex up scholarly texts and academic journals. The honored artists added style to titles such as Pennsylvania’s Small Museums: A Traveler’s Guide and Thomas Bernhard: Three Novellas. The exhibit opens Monday and runs through March 24 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at 2502 Westbrooke Circle in Lawrence. Call 785-864-4155. — Sarah Smarsh

Scared Yet?
We do love a good ghost story.

TUE 3/15
A.S. Byatt is perhaps best-known for her Booker Prize-winning 1990 literary romance Possession. (Its screen adaptation starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart.) Although that’s the only one of her books we’ve read, her latest, Little Black Book of Stories, piques our interest. If Byatt has applied her notorious attention to detail and density to this new collection of five short works (even the summaries sound disturbing), this could be the creep-out read of the year. Childhood hauntings, abnormal obsessions, death and disease plague Byatt’s characters, and her stories are woven through with themes of art, fiction and faith. The University of Missouri-Kansas City brings the author to Unity Temple on the Plaza (707 West 47th Street) at 7 p.m. Tuesday for a lecture titled “From Soul to Heart to Psyche to Personality: A Study of the Invention of Character in Novels,” followed by a book-signing. The event is free, but reservations are required; call 816-235-6222. — Annie Fischer

Good-bye
John Koop ditches drag for the D.B.

ONGOING
John Koop, well-known throughout Kansas City as his alter ego, Flo, hosts a number of weekly shows — always in drag. Starting Wednesday, however, we’ll get to see KC’s Gay Pride president in all his unlipsticked glory when he hosts The Weakest Twink, fashioned after the British quiz show, from 8 to 10 p.m. at D.B. Warehouse (1915 Main). Winners, playing against seven other contestants, can take home up to $200 a week. Call 816-471-1575. — Fischer

License to Ill

FRI 3/11
In Rob Tapley’s “Misplaced Desire,” floating, melting skulls jeer at a disrobed beauty queen, and a chubby arm proffers a gift in a small, bow-topped box. But Tapley renders the scene in candy colors splashed with champagne bubbles, giving the work a brightness and buoyancy that belies its darker undertones. (To be honest, we might need to see the whole collection before we know what those undertones really are.)

Sick: Enfermos, an exhibit of new paintings by Tapley and Fernando Achucarro, opens from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Green Door Gallery (1229-1/2 Union Avenue in the West Bottoms) and runs through April 9. Call 816-421-6889 for information. — Fischer