Space as Language: The Properties of Typographic Space
This publication, part of the Cambridge Elements: Publishing and Book Culture series, examines the function and significance of typographic space. Readers are invited to consider in turn the space within letters, the space between letters, the space between lines, and the margin space surrounding the text-block, to develop the hypothesis that viewed collectively these constitute a 'metalanguage' complementary to the text.
Drawing upon critical perspectives from printing, typeface design, typography, avant-garde artistic practice, and design history, Space as Language examines the connotative values and philosophies embodied in the form and disposition of space. These include the values attributed to symmetry and asymmetry, the role of "active" space in the development of modernist typography, the debated relationship between type and writing, the divergent ideologies of the printing industry and the letter arts, and the impact of successive technologies upon both the organization and the perception of typographic space.
