The Spaghetti City Video Manual: Guide to Use, Repair and Maintenance by Videofreex (review)

166 Books more accurately: ‘Photography did not liberate humanity from the false and mistaken substitution of the codes of a particular medium for the original of a message; it may be said merely to have made it easier and more pleasant to make the substitution.’ The book is well-illustrated. Most of the reproductions are in the size in which they originally appeared with any exception and every source carefully noted. Inevitably, the limitations of photomechanical reproduction impose themselves on what were originally autographic modes, with intaglio impressions suffering the most. Too, the book contains no color, although there is a discussion of the problems of color reproduction. Even so, the visual quality of the book is extremely high. There is an index, bibliography and glossary. Calligraphy. Arthur Baker. Dover, New York, 1973. 154 pp., illus. Paper, $3.50. Calligraphic Alphabets. Arthur Baker. Dover, New York, 1974. 153 pp., illus. Paper, $3.50. Reviewed by Jacques Decaux* Since the Phoenicians invented phonetic alphabets, writing has been at once a necessity and also a minor aesthetic expression. With the introduction of mechanical means to reproduce writing, the geometry of letters solidified around a few systems. Now few readers are aware of the excellence or mediocrity of print, which is not looked at, but only scanned for meaning. A small minority in a typographical confraternity is today working on aesthetic rules to develop new kinds of type, using the latest studies in eye physiology and visual illusions. These designers produce amazingly beautiful examples that, if they are good, are immediately recognized as ‘classics’. Unfortunately, it is seldom that the beauty of a printed page is seen as such. Scribes were made redundant by the printing press. Baker decided to become a scribe in the noblest sense of the term, like monks who in copying sacred manuscripts made works of art. Both of his books are interesting for many reasons. There are a few alphabets (letter types) of great typographical value, with lovely shaped letters. There are also typographic essays where an alphabet is set on a page to make an intriguing and intensely alive picture of sorts. Finally, there are some impressive enlargements of smaller kinds of type that I find most interesting for the liveliness of strokes and the indentations due to the uneven surface of the drawing paper. Baker works with a flat pen, but he handles it in such a way that his strokes are always surprising for not turning into what one would expect. Most praiseworthy is his display of virtuosity, which is controlled by the strict rules of type design. Visual Illusions Coloring Book. Spyros Horemis. Dover, New York, 1973. 30 pp., illus. Paper. $1.35. Reviewed by John Scott Willson** For many years children have found considerable pleasure and interest in both optical illusions and colouring books. In this publication Horemis combines these two aspects of visual art in the form of 30 geometrical line drawings that involve various forms of visual illusion. These designs bear some resemblance to those of the author that I reviewed in Leoirardo 7, 82 (1974) and, once again, they cannot be called truly ‘original’. Several are based on classic illusions such as Schroder’s staircase, the Necker cube and Penrose’s impossible triangle, whilst others are almost direct reproductions of figures used by Vasarely and Escher. The only text is a brief publisher’s note in which it is suggested that the effectiveness of the illusions may be ~~ *Robert Mayerstr. 27, 6 Frankfurt-Main, Fed. Rep. Ger. **The ManchesterGrammar School, Manchester M 130XT, England. enhanced by careful selection and distribution of the colours used to fill in the patterns. Four of the designs that have been coloured by the author are shown on the covers, but they do not appear to be any more effective than the original line drawings. Young children will be much less skillfull than Horemis in both choosing and applying the colours and it is probable that when the patterns are completed inexpertly the illusion effects will be reduced considerably rather than enhanced. Older children and adults who have the ability to complete the designs with sufficient accuracy will find this colouring-in rather trivial and...