LetterScapes: A Global Survey of Typographic Installations

Italian graphic designer Saccani here looks at notable typographic installations. This type of artwork includes public constructions that incorporate letters or words as the dominant visual design feature. Her book includes examples of buildings, monuments, and roads that are constructed from large letters or covered in meaningful words. Saccani mostly focuses on architecture in Europe and the United States, but also includes examples from South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. One important example is the Monument to the Victims of 11 March 2004 in Madrid, which commemorates the 191 victims of the Atocha railway station bombing. This large monument is completely covered in the transcriptions of messages left by visitors to the site shortly after the attack. Altogether, the book features 37 such projects, mostly from the past two decades. Saccani's book is successful because it covers each of these works in considerable depth, with background information about the artists, locations, and also the typefaces used. The color photo-reproductions are also very good.