Symbolic Typography and its Effects on Universal Understanding
The idea of universal language has always been a hot button topic, and it is being explored more thoroughly as we introduce greater amounts of symbols into our daily lives. Book artists have been approaching this idea for a long time, drawing attention to its possibilities and its potential drawbacks. In utilizing multiple kinds of symbols in exchange for words or other symbols themselves, certain book artists whom I will discuss further down this pathway have exercised their ability to assign meaning to that which is ambiguous.
The idea of universal language is controversial: there are those scholars who believe that is achievable--especially through the use of symbols--and there are those who disagree entirely with the possibility that it could ever happen due to individual differences in cultures. Despite these contradicting views, it is clear that the stripping down of language-specific words and reimagining them as purely visual icons presents a fascinating relationship between the form and typography of these books and their function as carriers of the potential for universality.
It is my hope that throughout this pathway, you will question the existence of universal language, the idea of perception and reading, and how two unique individuals have the possibility to look at a symbol and for the two of them to have completely different interpretations of that one symbol.
