According to Peter Hunt, the first example of teaching the English alphabet with illustrations appears to be John Hart’s A Methode, or Comfortable Beginning for All Unlearned (1570); it is even the first instance of “A is for Apple”. John Amos Comenius’ Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658), a later example of a pictorial Latin alphabet, was translated into English is 1659. But these are not the earliest alphabet tutorials. In History of the Horn-Book (1897), still the most authoritative book on the subject, Andrew White Tuer traces the earliest record “of a real horn-book with horn and not a mere alphabetical table” back to an equally important date in the history of printing and publishing: 1450. See the Online Exhibition Bonus below, however, for Erik Kwakkel’s challenge on this date.

The display case in Oxford for “Alphabets Alive!” included some of the Bodleian’s earliest examples of the horn-book. Here are some of the other works also shown there as well as some novelties and Tuer’s book. [Links in the captions will take you to more images and details.]

Van Hornbook tot ABC-Prentenboek (2003) Kees Baart, Dick Berendes, Henk Francino and Gerard Post van der Molen

Online Exhibition Bonus!

On his website Medievalbooks, Professor Erik Kwakkel has challenged Andrew White Tuer’s estimated date for the horn-book’s first appearance. Here is his discovery from the treasures in the Bodleian, right under the nose of the Alphabets Alive! exhibition:

Vita gloriossime virginis Mariae atque venerabilis matris filii dei vivi veri et unici (unidentified work).Italian manuscript, Venice. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Misc. 476 (14th century). Folio 047v.
Noted by Erik Kwakkel, “Book on a Stick“, Medievalbooks (Leiden), 10 April 2015 and accessed 10 November 2025.

As for the earliest ABC primer, Evelyn Shuckburgh proposed this mid-16th century candidate:

Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, ed. The ABC Both in Latyn & Englyshe (1889). A facsimile edition of a mid-16th century alphabet book and reader.

Return to List of Displays in Alphabets Alive!

Bailey, Merridee L. 2013. “Hornbooks“. Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. 6.1, pp. 3-14.

Beckett Sandra L. 2013. Crossover Picturebooks : A Genre for All Ages. London: Routledge.

Bernal, Martin. 1990. Cadmean Letters : The Transmission of the Alphabet to the Aegean and Further West Before 1400 B.C. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns.

Blamires, David. 1990. Adults Alphabets : Examples of English Press Alphabet Books from the Last Hundred Years with an Alphabetical Description Copious Illustrations and a Checklist of Press Alphabet Books. Church Hanborough: Hanborough Parrot. Bodleian.

Blamires, David. 1987. Alphabet Books. Manchester: John Rylands University Library. Bodleian.

Blinder, C. (2023). “An unmade book: Walker Evans’s 1970s Polaroids of Letters”. In The photobook world. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. Retrieved 7 June 2023. From the abstract: “When Walker Evans died in 1975 he had been in the process of completing a photo-book, a sort of literary typology based on a series of Polaroids taken by him of roadside signs, traffic markings, advertisements and other urban ephemera. The aim, according to Jeff L. Rosenheim, curator of the Evans Archives at The Met, was to create ‘an alphabet book based on individual letters’. … Evans’s Polaroids have since been published, the fragmented letters as well as portraits and landscapes in a collected format but it is worth reconsidering how his painstaking attention to the objects of everyday life might have brought together writing on the streets into a photobook of letters; a new visual language indicative of a new photographic one as well.”

Boeckeler, Erika Mary. 2017. Playful Letters : A Study in Early Modern Alphabetics. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Bodleian.

Bromer, Anne, and Julian I. Edison. Miniature Books : 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures. New York: Abrams, 2007. Bodleian.

Chiera, Edward, and George G Cameron. 1938. They Wrote on Clay : The Babylonian Tablets Speak To-Day. Chicago Ill: University of Chicago Press. Bodleian.

Clodd, Edward. 1913. The Story of the Alphabet. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1913. Bodleian. Superseded by several later works, but is freely available online with line illustrations and some black and white photos.

Cooper, Cathie Hilterbran. 1996. ABC Books and Activities : From Preschool to High School. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. Bodleian.

Cornell University. 2017. Wake the Form: Artists’ Books in Context. Website. See the sections “Abecedarium” and “Child’s Play”.

Crain, Patricia. 2002. The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America from the New England Primer to the Scarlet Letter. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Bodleian.

Davies, Lyn. 2006. A Is for Ox : A Short History of the Alphabet. London: Folio Society. Bodleian.

De Hamel, Christopher, and Lovett, Patricia. 2010. The Macclesfield Alphabet Book : Bl Additional Ms 88887 : A Facsimile. London: British Library. Bodleian.

De Looze, Laurence. 2016. The Letter and the Cosmos : How the Alphabet Has Shaped the Western View of the World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Bodleian.

Delamotte, F. 1862. The Book of Ornamental Alphabets Ancient and Medieval: From the Eighth Century with Numerals:…. Fourth ed. London: E. & F.N. Spon. Bodleian.

Diringer, David, and Regensburger, Reinhold. 1968. The alphabet: a key to the history of mankind. London: Hutchinson. Bodleian. A standard, beginning to be challenged by late 20th and early 21st century archaeological findings and palaeographical studies.

Diringer, David. 1953. Staples Alphabet Exhibition Sponsored and Arranged by Staples Press London 1953; the Alphabet Throughout the Ages and in All Lands. Staples Press: London. Bodleian.

Donaldson, Timothy J. 2008. Shapes for Sounds. 1st ed. New York City NY: Mark Batty. Bodleian.

Drucker, Johanna. 1999. The alphabetic labyrinth: the letters in history and imagination. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson. Bodleian.

Drucker, Johanna. 2022. Inventing the Alphabet : The Origins of Letters from Antiquity to the Present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bodleian.

Druker, Elina, and Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina. 2015. Children’s Literature and the Avant-Garde. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Dyer, M.A., and Hibben, Y., 2012. Developing a Book Art Genre Headings Index. Art Documentation: Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 31(1), pp.57–66.

Ege, Otto. 1921/1998. The Story of the Alphabet, Its Evolution and Development… Embellished Typographically with Printer’s Flowers Arranged by Richard J. Hoffman. Van Nuys, CA: Richard J. Hoffman. A miniature. The type ornaments chosen by Hoffman are arranged chronologically by designer (Garamond, Granjon, Rogers) and printed in color.

Evetts, Leonard. 1979. Roman Lettering : A Study of the Letters of the Inscription at the Base of the Trajan Column with an Outline of the History of Lettering in Britain. New York: Taplinger. Bodleian.

Ferraro, Cari. 2010. “Sacred Script: Ancient Marks from Old Europe“. Cari Ferraro: Prose & Letters. Accessed 4 January 2022. Also published in Alphabet : the journal of the Friends of Calligraphy. Volume 35.3. San Francisco Friends of Calligraphy. Bodleian.

Findlay, James A. 2000. ABC Books and Related Materials: Selections from the Nyr Indictor Collection of the Alphabet. First ed. Ft. Lauderdale Fla: Bienes Center for the Literary Arts Broward County Library.

Firmage, Richard A. 2001. The Alphabet: The Story of One of Civilisation’s Greatest Inventions. London: Bloomsbury.Bodleian.

Fischer, Steven Roger. 2008. A history of writing. London: Reaktion Books. Bodleian.

Flanders, Judith. 2021. A Place for Everything : The Curious History of Alphabetical Order. London: Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan. Bodleian.

Folmsbee, Beulah. 1965. A Little History of the Horn-Book. Third Printing with Illustrations and a Map. Boston: Horn Book. Bodleian.

Gagné, Renaud. 2013. “Dancing Letters: The Alphabetic Tragedy of Kallias”. In Choral Mediations in Greek Tragedy, ed. R. Gagné and M. Hopman, Cambridge University Press 282-307. Bodleian.

Gannon, Megan. 10 April 2019. “Cave Markings Tell of Cherokee Life in the Years Before Indian Removal“. Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed 14 July 2023.

Goetz, Sair. 11 June 2020. “Letterforms / Humanforms“. Letterform Archive News. Accessed 30 January 2022.

Goldman, David J. 1994. A is for ox: the story of the alphabet. New York: Silver Moon Press. Bodleian.

Haley, Allan. 1995. Alphabet : The History Evolution and Design of the Letters We Use Today. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. Bodleian.

Heller, Steven, and Anderson, Gail. 2014. The Typographic Universe : Letterforms Found in Nature the Built World and Human Imagination. New York New York: Thames & Hudson. Bodleian.

Hoptman, Laura J. et al. 2012. Bulletins of the Serving Library #3: Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language. Berlin/New York: Sternberg Press/Dexter Sinister. Bodleian. Catalogue and essays tied to a group exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from May 6 to August 27, 2012. “It brings together forty-four modern and contemporary artists and artists’ groups working in all mediums including painting, sculptutre, film , video, audio, spoken word, and design, all of whom concentrate on the material qualities of written and spoken language–visual, aural, and beyond.”(P. 181). See also Maia Conlon’s altered book version.

Hunt, Peter, and Butts, Dennis. 1995. Children’s Literature : An Illustrated History. Oxford: Oxford UP. Cites the first picture alphabet as John Hart’s 1570 A Methode or Comfortable Beginning for All Vnlearned Whereby They May Bee Taught to Read English in a Very Short Time with Pleasure: So Profitable As Straunge Put in Light by I(Ohn) H(Art). Chester Heralt. Henrie Denham: London.

Illich, Ivan, and Sanders, Barry. 1988. ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind. London: Boyars. Bodleian.

Jackson, Donald. 1997. The story of writing. Monmouth, England: Calligraphy Centre. Bodleian.

Jacquillat, Agathe, and Vollauschek, Tomi. 2011. The 3d Type Book. London: Laurence King. Bodleian. Reference.

Kottke, Jason. 2005-23. “kottke.org posts about alphabet“. Accessed 28 September 2023.

Lawson, Alexander S. 2010. Anatomy of a Typeface. 5th print ed. Boston: David R. Godine.

Little, Laura. 2015. “A Practice‐Based Exploration of the Relationship between Artists’ Books and Children’s Picturebooks“. Anglia Ruskin University. PhD thesis.

Mackey, Bonnie, and Watson, Hedy Schiller. 2017. Alphabet Books : The K-12 Educators’ Power Tool. Santa Barbara California: Libraries Unlimited. Bodleian.

Maffei, G., 2007. “Artists, books, children”. In: Dehò, Valerio. 2007. Children’s Corner : Libri D’artista Per Bambini = Artists’ Books for Children Exhibition. Merano Italy: Edizioni Corraini. pp.26–27.

McLean, Ruari. 1976. The Noah’s Ark A.b.c. and 8 Other Victorian Alphabet Books in Color. New York: Dover Publications. Bodleian.

Moziani, Eliyahu. 1984. Torah of the Alphabet or How the Art of Writing Was Taught Under the Judges of Israel (1441-1025) : -The Original Short Course in Alphabetic Writing Conceived by Israel in Sinai. Herborn: Baalschem.

Myers George. 1986. Alphabets Sublime : Contemporary Artists on Collage & Visual Literature. Washington D.C: Paycock Press. Bodleian. Includes essay by Ludwig Zeller.

Ory, Norma R. 1978. Art and the Alphabet : An Exhibition for Children May 26-September 3 1978 Masterson Junior Gallery the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Houston, TX: Museum. Bodleian.

Ouaknin, Marc-Alain. 1996. Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing. New York: Abbeville Press. Bodleian. HxW mm. 384 pages. Part One provides a short history of writing and deal with the author’s view of the Latin alphabet’s origin in the proto-Sinaitic alphabet. Part Two proceeds letter by letter through the history of the alphabet’s development; each letter’s chapter concludes with a summary table: Name (in English and Hebrew); Classic Forms in Classical and Modern Hebrew; Original Meanings; Derivative Meanings; Acquired Meanings Perpetuated by the Hebrew Language; and Numeric Value. Part Three explains the author’s principle of archeography: “the analysis and interpretation of words based not only on their etymological roots but also on the original graphic form of the letters of the alphabet, as it was first encountered in proto-Sinaitic script, … and the origins and development of that first alphabet.” p. 352.

Nesticò, B. 2007. “Ó.P.L.A. The Home of Artists’ Books for Children”. In: Dehò, Valerio. 2007. Children’s Corner : Libri D’artista Per Bambini = Artists’ Books for Children Exhibition. Merano Italy: Edizioni Corraini. pp.17–19.

Nodelman, Perry. 2017. David A. Carter, Alexander Calder, and the Childlikeness of the Moveable Book: Children as “Children of All Ages”. The Free Library (June, 22). Accessed 17 September 17 2022.

Pflughaupt, Laurent. 2008. Letter by letter: an alphabetical miscellany. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Bodleian.

Pollinger, Gina. Alphabet Gallery : An ABC of Contemporary Illustrators. London: Mammoth, 1999.

Public Domain Review. “The Human Alphabet“. 3 November 2016. The Public Domain Review. Accessed 10 February 2023.

Raptis, Sotirios. 18 February 2011. “Human Alphabets 1“. Slideshare.net. Accessed 10 February 2023.

Raptis, Sotirios. 18 February 2011. “Human Alphabets 2“. Slideshare.net. Accessed 10 February 2023.

Raptis, Sotirios. 13 August 2016. “Human Alphabets 3“. Slideshare.net. Accessed 10 February 2023.

Raptis, Sotirios. 13 August 2016. “Human Alphabets 4“. Slideshare.net. Accessed 10 February 2023.

Reinhard, S., 2010. “The Children’s Picture Book as Artist’s Book: Turning the American Children’s Picture Book Form ‘Topsy & Turvy.’” International Journal of the Book, 7(4), pp. 99–126.

Robinson, Andrew. 1995. The story of writing. London: Thames and Hudson. Bodleian.

Rosen, Michael. 2013. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story. London: John Murray. Bodleian.

Rostankowski, C. C. 1994. “A Is for Aesthetics: Alphabet Books and the Development of the Aesthetic in Children“. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 28(3), 117–127.

Rothenstein, Julian, and Gooding, Mel. 2018. A2Z: Alphabets & Signs. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Bodleian.

Rothenstein, Julian, and Gooding, Mel. 1995. Alphabets & Other Signs Reprinted ed. London: Thames and Hudson. Bodleian.

Rothenstein, Julian, and Gooding, Mel. 2003. ABZ. San Francisco Calif: Chronicle Books. Bodleian.

Sacks, David. 2003. Language visible: unraveling the mystery of the alphabet from A to Z. New York: Broadway Books. Bodleian.

Samoyault, Tiphaine. 1996, 1998 trans. Alphabetical order: how the alphabet began. New York: Viking. Bodleian. Children’s book.

Scott, C. 2014. “Artists’ books, Altered books, and Picturebooks”. In: Kümmerling‐Meibauer, N., ed. Picturebooks: Representation and Narration. London, New York: Routledge. Scott points out the many design techniques that artists’ books and children’s alphabet books share : the arranging, folding and cutting of pages and the various ways of organizing them — “scrolls, sewn or pasted folios, accordion folds, or attached triangles or circles that open or unfold in various ways”; tunnel books, “fans, shadow boxes, windows, doors, and drawers … an assortment of Shepherd’s Purse and related folds, some of which may be drawn from the origami tradition, and which might be opened like a map, or form a pocket holding inserts. These methods of order provide a direction for the experience of the viewer/reader, a journey through the work of art that, like the picturebook, offers a form of linearity that combines graphic vision with a kind of narrative path from experience to experience. Notions of narrative perspective, the unfolding of a story and emotional involvement of the reader are as significant for artists books as they are in picturebooks. And the physical action of turning the page, so important to young children’s understanding of the way a book works, is replicated in artists’ books with their many different modes and sometimes complex methods of activation.” p.42

Shaw, Gary. 15 April 2021. “Ancient ABCs: The alphabet’s ‘missing link’ discovered in Israel“. The Art Newspaper.

Steiner Deborah. 2021. Choral Constructions in Greek Culture : The Idea of the Chorus in the Poetry Art and Social Practices of the Archaic and Early Classical Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. See chapter 8 for the story on Kallias and dancing the alphabet.

Thompson, Tommy. 1952. The ABC of our alphabet. London: Studio Publications. Bodleian. Not a fine press publication, but its layout, illustrations and use of two colors bear comparison with the Davies book. It too is out of print and unfortunately more rare.

Tuer, Andrew W. 1897. History of the Horn-Book. London: Leadenhall Press. Bodleian.

Verheyen, Peter. 1998. “Definition of the Artist’s Book; What is a Book; BSO’s (Book Shaped Objects); Art vs. Craft“. The Book Arts Web. Online.

Warner, Arabella. 27 July 2023. “A is for Ox“. The Oxford Sausage. More than a review of Alphabets Alive!, this personal essay concludes with a superb online alphabet exhibition.

Webb, Poul. 2017-“Alphabet Books — Parts 1-8” on Art & Artists. Google has designated this site “A Blog of Note”, well deserved for its historical breadth in examples, clarity of images and insight.

Wise, Jennifer. 1998. Dionysus Writes : The Invention of Theatre in Ancient Greece. Ithaca,NY/London: Cornell UP. Bodleian.

Witkovski, Matthew S., and Mayerová, Milča. 2004. “Staging Language : Milča Mayerová and the Czech Book Alphabet.” The Art Bulletin Vol. 86 No. 1, March 2004:114-135. Bodleian.

Wong, Kate. 5 June 2023. “This Small-Brained Human Species May Have Buried Its Dead, Controlled Fire and Made Art”. Scientific American. Online. Accessed 5 June 2023.

Zink, Michel. 2004. Le Moyen Age à La Lettre: Un Abécédaire Médiéval. Paris: Tallandier. Bodleian.

Webliography of Abecedaria

The following links (archived in the Wayback Machine) lead to sites showing artists’ alphabet books held by the institution or an illustrated exhibition on the topic.

Abecedarium:NYC (associated with New York Public Library)

California College of the Arts

Cornell University

Guild of Book Workers, 1998-99 Exhibition

Harvard University

Louisiana State University

Museum of Modern Art, NY (Artists’ Alphabets and Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language)

Rhode Island School of Design, Fleet Library

Skidmore College (caveat: search result filtered by “artists’ books” and “alphabet books”)

Trinity College, Hartford, CT

University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library (“ABC: An Artists’ Book Abecedarium” – a brilliant predecessor to “Alphabets Alive!”)

Return to List of Displays in Alphabets Alive!

“The shapes a bright container can contain!” (Theodore Roethke)

Artists’ books take on as many structural forms as artists can imagine. They may take them from the organizational structures of the traditional codex: page, columns, front and back matter, chapter, part, volume and binding. They may take them from ancient structures: the scroll, leaf books or the orihon (what the West calls the leporello, concertina or accordion structure). Or take the form of a simple wrapped or boxed portfolio. They may adopt more playful forms — flipbook, flagbook, tunnel book, volvelle and more — many of which have a long tradition in children’s books, especially the alphabet book.

When the letters of the alphabet are added to these structural sources of inspiration, a kaleidoscope of bright containers emerges, so let’s begin with Kathleen Amt’s Kaleidoscopic ABCs. [Links in the captions will take you to more images and details.]

Kathleen Amt, Kaleidoscopic ABC’s (1991)*. What rests inside the paper box is a flexagon, six paper pyramids bound together to create a “fidget toy” alphabet book of 24 “pages” (4 panels x 6 pyramids) to be read by turning it inside out again and again. Look for the tricky panel page at the end.

Matsumasa Anno, Anno’s Magical Alphabet (1981)*. An anamorphic alphabet requires great skill from the illustrator and a bit of effort from the reader. To read the pages of this alphabet, the reader removes a piece of mirrored paper from the envelope at the back of the book, furls it into a column and places it in the center of each page. Then the image at the bottom and the letter at the top of the page take their proper shapes in the mirror. To see the letter, though, the reader must spin the page around or go to the other side of the table. The physics of vision meets the physics of reading.

Patrice Miller (Edward Gorey), The Eclectic Abecedarium (2022).* The flag-book structure, which has the reader twisting and peering from so many angles, provides an ideal form with which to celebrate Edward Gorey’s eclectic vignettes and mysterious rhyming couplets.

Published to commemorate the Movable Books Society’s 25th anniversary, A to Z Marvels in Paper Engineering (2018) is aptly subtitled. A video created by Christopher Helkey gives 26 brief cameos to the contributing artists in which they demonstrate those marvels.

Merrill Shatzman, Calligrafitti #3 (2011).* While there are several leporellos on the exhibition, this one displays the letters of multiple alphabets in an intricate, handcut form.

Online Exhibition Bonus!

Ron King, The White Alphabet (1984). This double-sided leporello’s larger scale offers another opportunity to explore how light, paper, folds and cuts interact to provide the simple clues we need to distinguish a letter — and, by comparing it with the smaller versions, the chance to see how King has changed those sculptures over the years.

Scott McCarney, Alphabook 10 (2015) This book combines the alphabet sequence with the harlequinade (“flap-book”, “turn-up”, “metamorphosis” or “lift-the-flap”) structure invented in 17th century, in which the book’s narrative unfolds as each flap is lifted.

Maria Pisano, XYZ (2002). Two important features distinguishing this leporello from others are its miniature status and its being made with pulp paint.

Return to List of Displays in Alphabets Alive!