recommended by Eva Moulaert
Word Rain is about a reader. The novel enacts the act of reading itself. Before the title page, a spread appears on which the background of the apartment is printed. The pages are unnumbered, and the book bulges with typographic interventions: a point that keeps hanging, words and paragraphs that suddenly appear in capitals, underlined or struck through, incomprehensible mathematical formulas. Language is pushed to the foreground as material. In Word Rain, language behaves like a horde of revolting parasites and reading becomes alchemical, synesthetic, uncontrollable. What I find extraordinary is how this book activates a reading that involves the whole body and truly engages all the senses. The reader-protagonist pays close attention to the sensory qualities of the manuscript: she feels the texture of the paper, smells the page, notices how the sun falls on certain words. Word Rain reminds you that reading goes far beyond the purely intellectual comprehension of words. Reading is a multisensory experience.
The Visual History of Type, McNeil Paul, 2017
recommended by Lut Van den Heuvel
Visual History of Type is a complete visual survey of the history of type showing the original typefaces in the forms in which their designers intended them to be seen.
The book contains many archived scans of the original fonts.
Helvetica (movie), Gary Hustwit, 2007
recommended by Sam Corijn
A whole movie about just one font.
Dubuffet Typographer, Pierre Leguillon, 2013
recommended by Inge Ketelers
64p – FR/EN – 21 x 14,5 cm – softcover
A tribute to the French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) and to the typographic strategies with which Dubuffet achieves, on a visual level, his plan to destroy language through books and lithographs.
Dubuffet Typographe/r investigates the former wine-dealer's professional acumen, demonstrated by Dubuffet's creation of Art Brut and culminating in the management of an entire staff working to promote, document, and archive his activities. In the light of today's obsession with self-promotion, Dubuffet can be understood as a forerunner of artists such as Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst. Once again, Leguillon's approach follows seemingly marginal paths, which ultimately prove to be unexpectedly revelatory. Travelling to public and private archives such as la Fondation Dubuffet in Paris, the Bibliothèque Kandinsky at Centre Pompidou or to IMEC in Caen, Leguillon has photographed ephemera such as invitations, posters, catalogs, artist's books, flyers, tickets, and record sleeves. These images were then used to execute a “recadrage“ (re-framing) of Jean Dubuffet and his activities. Like a meticulous “detective,“ Leguillon shows us how “for each project, Dubuffet invented a new way of writing and composing text—quite possibly by simply improvising. By this, he rejected the standardization as imposed by the printing process and typing, an education he himself went through. In books and lithographs, Dubuffet thoroughly sabotaged writing and typography (l'écriture) by fragmenting and distorting it, thus achieving, on a visual level, his plan to destroy language.”
Published as a part of the second project of Pierre Leguillon for the 2013 Carnegie International.
Pierre Leguillon (born 1969 in Nogent-sur-Marne, France, lives and works in Paris) is an artist, curator, and writer.
This book highlights one aspect of Dubuffet. It once again demonstrates how a particular aspect of an artist’s work can be better showcased in a book than in an exhibition.
Daniel Buren. Discordance/Cohérence, Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Designed by Walter Nikkels, 1976
recommended by Inge Ketelers
80 pp. (b/w ill.), 21 × 27 cm, English/French
“A book by R.H. Fuchs with the collaboration of Daniel Buren and with contributions by André Bompard, B.H.D. Buchloh, Douglas Crimp, René Denizot.
All descriptions (photographs+texts+diagrams) here included correspond with works selected by Rudi Fuchs. This selection represents approximately seven percent of the work executed since 1965. Most descriptions are being done here for the first time. All descriptions have been written (or rewritten) especially for this book.
Walter Nikkels’ work should not be underestimated. This catalogue is structured around a clear concept; yet every spread is different and a delight to see.
Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design. Including the ones in this book, By Bob Gill, Published by Watson-Guptill, 1981
recommended by Michaël Bussaer
"This book is about ordinary graphic problems and how the problems themselves can lead to surprising, original graphic solutions. Provided the designer is prepared to let go of any preconceptions about how design is supposed to look", Bob Gill.
Ed Fella: A Life in Images,Ed Fella, Editor: David Cabianca, Visual Essay: Ed Fella with Andrea Fella Unit Editions, London, 2021.
recommended by Michaël Bussaer
Ed Fella: A Life in Images (Unit Editions), celebrates the life and work of a great designer, artist and educator.
The book’s beating heart is a 316-page visual essay that contains uncaptioned selections from 60 years of work – flyers, posters, original sketches, drawings, photographs and collages. It divides almost equally between what Fella calls his ‘two careers’: first, his 30 years as a commercial artist in Detroit; second, his life as an ‘exit-level’ designer, teaching at CalArts in Santa Clarita, California, where he still has a studio. The visual essay was sequenced and art directed by Ed Fella with his daughter Andrea Fella, who contributes an afterword about their work in his big archive.
In a digital age, Fella remains fully committed to the power of the hand-drawn and at 84 he is still pushing boundaries, living a life outside the lines, freed from the tyranny of the grid.
Grondslagen van de typografie/The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst, 1992
recommended by Peter Van de Cotte
Grondslagen van de typografie is a translation of Robert Bringhurst’s international bestseller The Elements of Typographic Style (version 4.1). A book for both professional designers and anyone involved in typesetting who has an interest in typography.
The renowned German typographer Hermann Zapf described Bringhurst’s book as “a must for everybody in the graphic arts” and concluded, “all desktop typographers should study this book; I wish to see this book become the Typographers’ Bible”.
The Canadian Robert Bringhurst is one of the world’s most respected typographers. He is also renowned as a poet. Bringhurst has taught the history of typography at various universities and is a fellow of the Canada Council for the Arts, the American Philosophical Society and the Guggenheim Foundation.
For this translation, Dutch type designers Martin Majoor and Frank Blokland each wrote a foreword. The book was designed by the Arnhem-based designer and graphic artist Titus Schulz. The text is set in DTL Albertina, designed by Chris Brand and digitised by Frank Blokland of the Dutch Type Library.
For a long time, typography was the exclusive domain of the craftsman. However, the computer has brought about a definitive change in this – nowadays, everyone is a ‘designer’. Bringhurst’s book is closely attuned to this development and thus meets a clear need. It is a reliable handbook that offers a history of the art of typography and provides an overview of symbols, concepts and traditions.
Bringhurst masterfully bridges modern technology and the age-old craft. When The Elements of Typographic Style was published in 1992, the book was immediately embraced by both conservatives and members of the avant-garde. It quickly became a standard reference work, which is now finally available in Dutch.
Emigre magazine, Rudy VanderLans / Zuzana Licko, 1984
recommended by Peter Van de Cotte
Emigre Magazine
1984-2005
Produced, edited, and designed by Rudy VanderLans and typeset by Zuzana Licko using a Macintosh computer, Emigre pioneered desktop publishing and set the standard for the first digitally designed layouts and typeface designs. At the time, its use of experimentation and disregard for conventions followed by then-prevalent modernist designers made Emigre both a controversial and a highly influential voice in graphic design.
ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE LUCA SCHOOL OF ARTS GHENT LIBRARY
Discover the website here
Last but not Liste, Thierry Chancogne
recommended by Peter Van de Cotte
The largest online index of carefully selected designers / design agencies / typographers / artists etc., compiled by Thierry Chancogne (lecturer, theorist and writer on graphic design).
Discover the website here
The Stroke, Gerrit Noordzij, 1985
recommended by Frederik Berlaen
Type design explained as a theory of writing and drawing.
University of Amsterdam Library Lettering, Erik van Blokland, 2025
recommended by Frederik Berlaen
A stunning realisation of a façade.