Book List of the Week: Calligrapher “Alice”
The creator of the Morgan Library & Museum’s celebrated signage picks 5 favorite books and gets a book dedicated to her own career.
By Stephanie Salomon July 19, 2016
For more than three decades, beginning in 1967, the calligrapher “Alice” (Alice Koeth— she dropped her last name professionally early on) designed and lettered the iconic and highly praised signage for New York’s Morgan Library & Museum. A founding member of the Society of Scribes (SOS), she is one of the most respected calligraphers in the world today, whose work has influenced generations of scribes.
Her keen understanding of the craft, respect for its tools, and interest in historical calligraphic forms come across clearly in the list of five books she recommends— all explorations of the written form of symbols, letters, and numbers. These range from the 1930 classic The Book of Signs by Rudolf Koch, to The Calligrapher’s Handbook by Heather Child (“a bible,” says Alice), to a catalogue of the work of Rudo Spemann, who, while imprisoned during World War II, Alice notes, “wrote the most wonderful small pages by candlelight.”
Up to now, though, she has never had a book devoted to her own extraordinary work, A currently running Kickstarter*, created by Jerry Kelly of The Kelly-Winterton Press, to publish a book on Alice’s calligraphy, aims to change that.
The book will feature 140 illustrations, showing the depth and breadth of Alice's artistry over her more than 60-year career. In addition to her celebrated posters for the Morgan Library & Museum (many not seen for decades), the book contains charming early works from the 1950s, as well as several sketches and preliminary layouts which offer a rare glimpse into Alice’s working process.
You can support the “Alice” Kickstarter through July 30! *Updated, August 1: the Kickstarter has been successfully funded!
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Understanding Understanding: New from Richard Saul Wurman
Understanding Understanding
by Richard Saul Wurman
Publisher: Richard Saul Wurman and Jack Dangermond
Published July 30, 2017
From the author of Information Architecture, who says about his newest book: “This is a book for people to dip into, as they would walk in and out of the room of a dinner party and embrace their interests. . . Before the rules on how to organize information, before you learn grammar, before you work hard at expanding your vocabulary and go through the exercises of parallel meanings of things as using a Thesaurus and as one writes papers in class, before any learning one must understand.”
The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison
The Hard Life
by Jasper Morrison
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Published in US: May 22, 2017
Photographs taken by designer Jasper Morrison of objects in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon, Portugal. “The objects photographed and described may be appreciated both for their beauty and for the example they set of design at its purest. The Hard Life is a continuation of Morrison’s celebration of the ordinary and offers a new perspective on his design philosophy.”
Paula Scher: Works - Order from Unit Editions
Paula Scher: Works
Editors: Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy
Design: Spin
Publisher: Unit Editions
Published April 2017
New book covering the career of of master designer Paula Scher, called “the most influential woman graphic designer on the planet.” (Ellen Lupton), This definitive, chronological visual record spans Paula’s early days in the music industry as an art director with CBS and Atlantic records; the launch of her first studio, Koppel & Scher; and her 25-year engagement with Pentagram.
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Type Tells Tales: New from Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
Type Tells Tales
by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published May 30, 2017
Reveals how type can become both content and illustration, as letters take the form of people, animals, cars, or planes. With numerous illustrations by F. T. Marinetti, Bruno Munari, and Francis Picabia, among others, as well as by contemporary designers such as Richard Eckersley, John Hendrix, Maira Kalman, and Corita Kent.
The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design: New from Steven Heller and Greg D’Onofrio
The Moderns
by Steven Heller and Greg D’Onofrio
Publisher: Abrams
Published September 19, 2017
Featuring more than 60 designers whose magazine, book, and record covers; advertisements and package designs; posters; and other projects created the visual aesthetics of postwar modernity in America. Some were émigrés from Europe; others were homegrown; all were intoxicated by elemental typography, primary colors, photography, and geometric or biomorphic forms. Some are well-known, others are honored in this volume for the first time, and together they comprised a movement that changed our design world.
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