Searching for freestylisch set typo in books
It’s my first post here. So... Hello :)
I wonder if somebody knows some books in which the typography goes crazy.
For example. You have a normal written book an all of sudden the linespacing becomes double, triple or even more. You have just one word in a line or the typesize increases from 12pt to 300pt and so on. And maybe as suddenly as the typographic craziness began it disappears again and the book goes on as if it were a totally normal novel.
Any idea?
Would be awesome.
Cheers
Vit
16.Apr.2007 6.37am
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Here you will find some pictures of pages from the book:
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=nl-nl&q=%22House%20of%...
Pieter
16.Apr.2007 7.50am
Cheers for the link. This looks quite good. If you got more of this kinda stuff. Just tell.
Tha again
Vit
16.Apr.2007 1.59pm
Another one which dates from the 18th century: “the life and opinions from Tristram Shandy”, written by Laurence Sterne.
see http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/oct2000.html
And take a look at some of the booksfrom the Russian Avant Garde.
Moma had an exhibition about it and the (great!) site is still online:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/russian/
Greets,
Pjotr
16.Apr.2007 4.45pm
Mark Z. Danielewksi recently released a new book, which has the same elaborate typography (but also the writing and story). It’s called Only Revolutions.
Some images here and here. But you need to hold the book to truely see all it’s tricks. Really worth it, if only for the typography.
17.Apr.2007 3.32am
Tha again for all good hints. I’ve found another one that is definitely worth the buy. Called “Archäologie der Zukunft”. It’s a swiss book which has a beautiful typography. And again. If somebody got some more hints. Just post. :)
Greets
Vit
17.Apr.2007 9.36am
I don’t know about going crazy, but Avital Ronell’s books
have very expressive text typography, which is very rare.
(Thanks to Bill Troop for the ref, ages ago it seems.)
hhp
20.Apr.2007 5.36am
If I got a bit more time I’ll go n check her books. Got my self a copy of “House of leaves” and it is definitely worth the buy.
And again, If there is somebody out there with more good books to mention. Go ahead. :)
Greets
Vit
20.Apr.2007 9.37am
There’s one page in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll... “The Mouse’s Tale”, where the mouse tells a tale that is shaped like a tail. The typography differs in the different editions of the book, but you can see an approximation on this website: http://bootless.net/mouse.html
20.Apr.2007 12.15pm
Interesting thread, I’m curious about this too. Have you seen VAS: An Opera in Flatland by Steve Tomasula from a few years back?
27.Apr.2007 4.18am
@ andyclymer: Haven’t seen the book you mentioned yet. But I’ll definitely look it up. Cheers for the posting.
Another book to look up is “Staat sex amen” ISBN 3-9521287-5-9
Some parts have a really nice typography.
Greets,
Vit
27.Apr.2007 5.54am
I believe that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer has typographic pyrotechnics but I’ve never looked at it - I hated his first book.
27.Apr.2007 3.17pm
There is also the work of Massin. He did a typographic version of “Exercices de style” by Raymond Queneau, a book telling an ordinary incident in 99 different styles. In Massin’s version, every story is set in a different typographic style. His version of “La cantatrice chauve” (1966) by Ionesco is amazing.
30.Apr.2007 2.40am
As far as I got a bit time I’ll try to update my postings with some scans from the books I mentioned. So stay tuned.
Greets
Tim
30.Apr.2007 4.15am
Rhyme and Reason: a Typographic Novel by Erik Spiekermann demonstrates what you ask about, but it does so in a self-conscious way, as it is a book about typography itself.