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The End of Print

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The End of Print

Hyperhyper design thinkin’

pgb
Jan 9
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The End of Print

abdymok.substack.com
A novel by Heinrich Böll, c/o Amazon

My position on those early web page prototypes called books is clear: I love books, books are good, books decorate a room nicely. The codex is a robust plug-and-play interface. Hell, I’ve been reading the fucking things for years. Girls who wonder ou est la bibliotheque make me go all googly.

Fürsorgliche Belagerung (Abacus imprint by Sphere Books 1983)

The above is a rare cover for a book that did not as yet exist, at least in English until the early 1980s and my first trip to Cologne. Version one – everybody seemed to think version one was rather good – was drubbed and kicked and held, noses pinched, at arm’s length by the sales force of Kiepenheuer & Witsch for being too mopey. Improved upon in later years.

I recently came in contact with this dreadful jacket for Demian. Almost made me not want to re-read it.

I find myself veering away from the usual disjointed bushwa about visible language and maps of the mind and centers that cannot hold toward a reiteration of thoughts from an article I read awhile ago, by that bright fellow Zeldman.

It would be interesting to establish the point in history – no doubt somewhere in the ad-soaked marketing-mad 1960s – when function lost its lustre, when writing became secondary to its presentation, when commercial artists became graphic designers and the cult of haughty ego took hold.

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The End of Print

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