This is the tagline for a wonderful site created by Marty Weil entitled simply "Ephemera." As someone who was bitten by the collecting bug at an early age (first stamps & baseball cards, then eventually everything) I truly enjoyed digging around this well researched and illustrated blog. Each entry is presented with enough background info to give the visually interesting a proper context. Though, "paper" only hints at the content featured, which ranges from booklets & publications to advertising pieces to photos & postcards and more. Oh, and did I mention the vintage dairy patch collection?

Labels: ephemera, found items, old paper

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Though it may not have been his intention, Dr. Alesha Sivartha's masterpiece of mysticism and typography, The Book of Life: The Spiritual and Physical Constitution of Man, is truly a work of art. While difficult to follow at first, the often densely worded drawings and diagrams created in the late 1800s do eventually begin to make sense—if only on a per-page basis. Nevertheless, rarely have form and function been so perfectly melded, ala Edward Tufte—though way before his time. Sivartha, a.k.a. Arthur Merton, MD, was allegedly the illegitimate son of the Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, a prominent Indian scholar and reformer. While little is known about his life or why he chose to dedicate it to mapping out the physical and spiritual nature of our higher brain functions, his apparent relation to the Raja may have been the impetus. An online version of the book maintained by the author's great-great-grandson, complete with his own interpretations, is located here.

Labels: Art, Drawing, folk art, outsider art, visionary art

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Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing is a wonderful survey of a medium whose relevance in the broader context of contemporary art has finally been established. Over a hundred international artists working in a variety of styles and mediums are profiled here with little fluff and plenty of full-size (the book is 11.6" x 10.2") color images. My personal stand-outs include William Kentridge, Raymond Pettibon, Ellen Gallagher, Simon Evans and Tacita Dean. Any surprise that they all incorporate words into their work?

Labels: Art, Drawing, Ellen Gallagher, Phaidon, Raymond Pettibon, Simon Evans, Tacita Dean, William Kentridge

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This tome of Ed Ruscha's word drawings should satisfy both lovers of contemporary art and designers alike. They Called Her Styrene collects almost 600 'word' artworks created by Ruscha since the early 1960s onward, which he executed in a variety of mediums including pastel, graphite, acrylic, gunpowder and even vegetable and fruit juices. While some pieces are as deadpan as the image on the book's cover, others are stunning renderings of three-dimensional ribbon-like words. Shaped like a good sized brick, you're sure to have enough room for this must-own monograph on your coffee table.

Labels: Art, Drawing, Ed Ruscha, hand-painted, Typography

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It took me long enough to write about this most "handy" tool. The Type Selector, created by Michael Wörgötter, is the Pantone swatchbook equivalent to typography. The 226 specimens, which are grouped as Serif, Slab Serif, Sans Serif, Script, Black Letter and Display, fan out allowing you to compare multiple faces at once. It's quite solid, in fact, and will stand up on its own allowing you to keep your selections sticking up for easy reference. I'd call this the most useful design tool of 2006. Good on ya, Michael!

Labels: Font, Foundry, Pantone, Type Selector, Typography

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