Alphabatics (1986)

Alphabatics (1986)
Suse MacDonald
Paper on board, casebound sewn. H236 x 285 mm, 56 pages. Acquired from Book Depository, 10 September 2021.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

While Suse MacDonald’s Alphabatics can find its ancestor in Bruno Munari’s ABC Con Fantasia (1960), it also finds some clever descendants in Nicolas McDowall’s A Bodoni Charade (1995), David Pelletier’s The Graphic Alphabet (1996) and Anne Bertier’s Construis-moi une lettre (2008).

As the letters are put through their acrobatic paces in three to four steps on the verso page to become the image on the right, the book gently pushes the left-to-right reading direction. Mahmoud Tammam has created animals composed of their names in Arabic script. It would be interesting to see a right-to-left Arabic version (Alefbatics?) of Alphabatics.

Further Reading

“Abecedaries I (in progress)“. Books On Books Collection.

“Anne Bertier“. 10 August 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Lisa Campbell Ernst“. 12 December 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Nicolas McDowall“. 12 December 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Bruno Munari“. 19 August 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Dave Pelletier“. 10 August 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Laura Vaccaro Seeger“. 12 December 2022. Books On Books Collection.