Images courtesy of the artist
Ryan Gander presents Substance, which takes its starting point form a formalist experiment in typography; where language and communication as invention are disrupted by another type of creativity, design. New Alphabet, designed by Wim Crouwel in 1967, was a radical attempt to alter the recognisable characters of a language through the filter of a design structure. The New New Alphabet is Ganders typeface of additional marks, which when imposed on Crouwels original, creates a more accessible and readable typeface. This subversion of utopian design creates a tension between the possibilities of invention and the functional and democratic nature of language. The work was created in conjunction with typographer Rasmus Spanggaard Troelsen.
For the book, Ryan has continued his work with New New Alphabet in a different form. This time the construct of the title The New New Alphabet offers itself to the process at play.
RYAN GANDER
Substance (top) 2008
Framed poster 841 × 1189 mm
The New New Alphabet (book version) (bottom) 2008
