Book Reviews

In conventional graphics, a distinction is normally made between the ground (most often the paper) and the figure (usually some lines or patterns placed on the ground to form an image). But what do you do, say, when an art instructor tells you to ¿draw something with no ground.¿ It was essentially from this very assignment in a graphic design class that Scott Kim first molded an interest and then an avocation. Concentrating on letters and the extent to which they can be modified and still be recognizable, he has dabbled in an art form to such an extent that he can now present a book of delightful figures and thought-provoking text. His figures are visual palindromes, self-descriptive, visually ambiguous, or in some other way intriguing.