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His science fiction covers pioneered a much-imitated style featuring vast, colourful spaceships, machines and cities, often marked with mysterious symbols. Human figures are totally absent. These images are suggestive of science fiction in general rather than depictions of specific scenes from books, and therefore can be - and have been - used interchangeably on book covers.
Books featuring Foss illustrations include the 1970s British paperback covers for Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series.
In contrast, Foss' numerous illustrations for the sex manual The Joy of Sex are done in a much softer, natural style. The illustrations were based on original photographs of the book's art director and his wife. The illustrations have since become somewhat dated, mainly because of changes in hairstyles.