AMERICAN TYPES in progress, Portland studio, 1995
AMERICAN TYPES series
Each canvas represents a detail from the 1941 edition of The Book of American Types, a type specimen catalog published annually by the American Type Foundry of Elizabeth, NJ. The typesetter for the catalog faced an unusual problem: not which font to use to showcase the words, but which words to use to showcase the font. Concrete poetry using language to sell lead type. Since typography has no native scale, I made each canvas in two sizes, then applied this logic to the two-volume set of books I made of my project.
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JOB/GIRL enamel screenprint on gessoed canvases of two sizes, 60" x 28" x 1.5", 1995
I made all the paintins in two sizes because language has no correct scale. It's opportunistic. It adapts & evolves. In a similar spirit, I made the books about the project to correspond to this play of scale ...
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AMERICAN TYPES blind emboss on French-folded pages with offset litho, 2-volume set, 1996
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AMERICAN TYPES 1996
AMERICAN TYPES 1996
RIGID FRAME/DIRT HIGHWAYS enamel screenprint on gessoed canvas, 48" x 48" x 1.5", 1995
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AUTOCRACY/COMPETITION enamel screenprint on gessoed canvas, 54" x 30" x 1.5", 1995
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NICHE enamel screenprint on gessoed canvas, 53" x 32" x 1.5", 1995