Man and his World in the Alphabet (1991)

Man and his World in the Alphabet (1991)
Victor Hugo and Kenneth Hardacre
Softcover, sewn. H185 x W128 mm. 12 pages. Edition of 300. Acquired from Castle Hill Books, 9 June 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

In booklet form rather than broadside, Kenneth Hardacre pays homage to Victor Hugo and Hermann Zapf. The text is an extract from Hugo’s 1839 letters to his wife, published in 1910. The extract was translated by Paul Standard for Hermann Zapf’s Manuale Typographicum (1954), and Hardacre adds to his homage by typesetting the extract in Zapf’s Palatino. According to the booklet’s colophon, the papers for the cover, flyleaf and text are mould-made papers for private distribution by Hardacre and The Kit-Cat Press.

For the Books On Books Collection, Hardacre’s booklet has captured an idea that underlies both the alphabet-related and architecture-related themes in the collection. The list below provides some examples of the works reflecting those themes.

Further Reading

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

“Architecture“. 12 November 2018. Books on Books Collection.

“Federico Babina“. 20 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Antonio Basoli“. 20 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Roberto Beretta“. 18 February 2023. Books On Books Collection.

“Lanore Cady“. 16 December 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Nerma Prnjavorac Cridge“. 14 February 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Francesco Dondina“. 16 December 2022. Books On Books Collection.

“Elliott Kaufman“. 21 January 2023. Books On Books Collection.

“Jeffrey Morin & Steven Ferlauto“. 23 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Richard Niessen“. 20 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Paul Noble“. 23 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Antonio & Giovanni Battista de Pian“. 20 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Johann David Steingruber“. 23 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

“Edward Andrew Zega & Bernd H. Dams“. 23 April 2021. Books On Books Collection.

Côme, Tony. “The Typotectural Suites“, The Palace of Typographic Masonry. Accessed 5 April 2021.

De Looze, Laurence. 2018. The Letter and the Cosmos: How the Alphabet Has Shaped the Western View of the World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Holl, Steven. 1980. The alphabetical city. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Hugo Victor. 1910. France Et Belgique; Alpes Et Pyrenees [Et] Voyages Et Excursions. Paris: Ollendorff.

Hugo, Victor, and Nathan Haskell Dole, trans. 1890 (1895). Victor Hugo’s Letters to His Wife and Others (The Alps and the Pyrenees). Boston, MA: Estes and Lauriat. This translation from an earlier publication of Hugo’s letters can be accessed online.

Macken, Marian. 2018. Binding Space: The Book as Spatial Practice. London and New York: Routledge.

McEwen, Hugh. Polyglot Buildings. 12 January 2012. Issuu. Accessed 13 March 2021.

Niessen, Richard. 2018. The Palace of Typographic Masonry. Leipzig: Spector Books.

Noble, Paul, and Georgina Starr. “N is for Nobson“, ARTtube, 21 October 2018. Accessed 13 March 2021.

Polano, Sergio. January 2019. “Architectural Abecedari“, Casabella, 893, pp. 62-75 + 100-101 (eng.). Milan.

Tsimourdagkas, Chrysostomos. 2014. Typotecture: Histories, Theories and Digital Futures of Typographic Elements in Architectural Design. Doctoral dissertation, Royal College of Art, London. Accessed 13 March 2021.

Zapf, Hermann, and Paul Standard . 1954. Manuale Typographicum : Texte Und Übersetzungen in Deutscher Sprache. Germany: publisher not identified.