the sensory delights of text

I'm pleased to announce that my friend and fellow book maker, Gabriella Solti, has won third prize in the Alcuin Society annual book competition in the limited edition category with her book "The Sensory Delights of Text." Two photographs of the book along with her thoughts on the visual beauty of text. Congratulations, Gabriella!



We often place a heightened importance on the content of texts, giving a status of superiority to the ideas in them while neglecting their materiality, the physicality of their creation and their pictorial beauty. We celebrate text and language as the primary means of communication, as the depository of knowledge and ideas; but do we honour their cerebral character to the detriment of their sensory qualities?

“The Sensory Delights of Text” is a selection from my collection of manuscripts of artists and scholars. Each has its own visual attraction, unusual placement on the page, odd rhythm, and often striking peculiarity. Their sequence in the book highlights and strengthens their sensory qualities. In my own personal engagement with these manuscripts, driven by my aesthetic, the materiality and pictorial beauty of texts can be just as exciting as the thoughts they may contain.