The Proscholium display case in the main entrance to the Old Bodleian Library and Divinity School is frequently used as an extension to point the many visitors to this complex of buildings dating back to 1602. For “Alphabets Alive!”, Ron King, Kevin M. Steele and the Movable Book Society’s artists perform the honors.
The poster displayed in the Proscholium case is Ron King’s Alphabet II (1999), captured above Cathy Courtney’s Cooking the Books (2002), a history of King’s Circle Press. Like a signpost, it points to Alphabeta Concertina in the past and the ABC Paperweights in the future, both of which appear in the display case “The ABCs of Form & Structure“.
As the alphabet developed, technology and material also played their role in more considered shaping of letters by scribes, then wood carvers and engravers, then smiths for hot metal type, and ultimately typographers, designers and artists. Kevin M. Steele’s The Movable Book of Letterforms (2009) uses pop-ups, pull tabs, flaps and a volvelle to introduce the viewer the origins and unique characteristics of letterforms.
Published to commemorate the Movable Books Society’s 25th anniversary, A to Z Marvels in Paper Engineering (2018) is aptly subtitled. Above are A by Simon Arizpe and Z by Yevgeniya Yeretskaya. The video below by Christopher Helkey gives 26 brief cameos to the contributing artists in which they demonstrate their marvels.
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