The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog (2008)

The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog (2008)
Roberto Beretta
Hardcover. H180 xW125 mm. 52 pages. Acquired from Amazon.fr. 18 September 2022.
Photos: Books On books Collection.

The title of designer Robert Beretta’s alphabet artist’s book is a pangram; it contains all the letters in the alphabet. His photos demonstrate that a sharp look all around will find them, too. Beretta’s selection for the letters B and C reflect recurrent themes that cross paths in the Books On Books Collection: the alphabet and architecture. Further Reading provides examples of works in those categories.

The observation of the alphabet all around us, not just in architecture, was well-captured by the novelist Victor Hugo. In a letter to his wife, he wrote, “Human society, the world, man in his entirety is in the alphabet. … The alphabet is a source” (Hardacre). Hugo saw letters everywhere, not just in what humankind creates but in nature as well. Throughout his alphabet and in particular with the letters XYZ, Beretta neatly captures that.

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.

“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.

“Kenneth Hardacre“. 18 February 2023. 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, and Jessie Haynes, trans. 1831 (1902). Nôtre Dame de Paris. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

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.

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.