Warren Lehrer’s Book List: A Life in Visual Literature
By Steve Kroeter November 4, 2013
For his (long—22 books) list for Designers & Books, writer, graphic designer, and multimedia artist Warren Lehrer, known as a pioneer in the field of visual literature, or “vis lit,” decided to focus on “books (mostly fiction, some non-fiction, a few hybrids) whose visual composition is an integral part of the writing.” “The authors of these books,” he says in the introduction to his list, “employ a wide range of visual, typographic, and structural strategies. They seek to discover the shape of thought, give form to metaphors, reflect different kinds of relationships, syntax, rhythms of speech, qualities of character, and ways of reading. Most of these titles also incorporate images as a part of the storytelling. In some, the text becomes image, and images are part of the text. One book on this list uses only images to tell the story. Many of these authors take advantage of the physical properties of the book as a medium. Some put it all together themselves; others collaborate with designers and artists.”
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| Warren Lehrer, A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley, 2013 (ORO Editions/Goff Books) |
It’s hard not to agree with Lehrer’s assessment of his book choices—that “choosing favorites is nearly impossible.” Among many highlights are French graphic designer Robert Massin’s interpretation of Eugène Ionesco’s 1964 drama The Bald Soprano, in which, Lehrer says of the layout, “Sentences bend around the corner of a napkin, words wobble and warp between the lips of a man and woman who come to realize that they are married to each other, and hell breaks loose in a layered argument that careens across the page at different angles—all done decades before Adobe software and Apple computers became tools of the trade.” There are several graphic novels that play with the conventions of the genre, including Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries, which allows the reader to “eavesdrop on a multi-generational ‘real-time’ conversation,” and Joe Sacco’s Palestine, which centers on conflict zones around the world. There is also a reconsideration of Sheherezade as a flipbook by Janet Zweig and Holly Anderson, and Woman’s World, a novel by Graham Rawle that was “assembled (written/composed, pick your verb here) from 40,000 fragments of text snipped from 1960s British women’s magazines.”
A prolific author of works of visual literature, Warren Lehrer has recently written and designed his 10th book, the just released “illuminated novel” A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley (ORO Editions/Goff Books). The book is a fictional autobiography of an author who, now in prison, looks back over his career and the 101 books he has written. Excerpts from the books, complete with covers and publicity copy, are interspersed with the author’s (Mobley’s) confesssional memoir as he speaks it on a microcassette.
Lehrer talks about the book in a WNYC interview with Brian Lehrer (his brother):
A Life in Books is available at the Designers & Books Online Book Fair at a special discount.
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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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