Wordplay – Philosophy Art & Science of Ambigrams
By John Langdon, Foreword by Dan Brown, Author of Angels and Demons
Apr 10, 2009
Wordplay, by John Langdon, (Broadway Books) explores the world of ambigrams, a play on words that can be read both right side up and upside down, and here the intrigue begins.
John Langdon — Author of Wordplay
John Langdon teaches at the College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University. He has been a graphic designer for more than thirty years and has received several awards for his logo designs. The first museum show of his paintings took place in 2004 at the Noyes Museum of Art, New Jersey.
Langdon's ambigrams have featured in numerous publications including Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, author of several best-selling novels such as The Da Vinci Code, Digital Fortress and Deception Point. The imminent release of the film (15th May 2009) is bound to create heightened interest in calligraphy and calligraphic techniques.
Wordplay — About the Book
The opening chapters reflect the book's title and set out Langdon's personal thoughts on the philosophy, art and science of ambigrams. Langdon engages with Taoism, exploring the yin and yang, balance and harmony of the written word. He calls upon the words of Galileo Galilei:
“Philosophy is written in this grand book — I mean the universe — which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written.” (Il Saggiatore, Galileo Galilei.)
The publication uses cunning trickery to force the reader to think carefully about its contents. Halfway through Dan Brown's Foreword the book must be turned upside down in order to continue reading. Brown says:
"John takes familiar words and symbols, ingeniously skewing, twisting, and re-arranging them so he can "re-present" them in a new light. (p.2)
With Galilei's words in mind Langdon sets out to 'comprehend the language and interpret the characters'. He presents his findings in the forty or so chapters that follow. Some are humorous, some are serious, but each one stretches the mind as well as the eyes.
Each mind-bending illustration features a different word or words and is accompanied by a philosophical exploration of the chosen subject with discussions about beauty, balance, reality, ambiguity, truth, symmetry and asymmetry. The art and the essays show how the very shape of letters can change our idea of words and their meanings.
Wordplay — Philosophy and Art Intertwined
This is a book that exists on two or even three levels. Firstly, as a philosophical discourse, secondly as a book of graphic design, and thirdly, at its most profound level, where philosophy and art meet and are inseparably intertwined.
Wordplay, (ISBN 0-7679-2075-9) by John Langdon is a small format paperback publication from Broadway Books, New York, 2005, priced at US $14.95.
 |
 |
 |
