The Universe of Books
"The Universe of Calligraphy" is a 24-volume journal on East Asian script and media history, written by Ishikawa Kyuyo, a calligrapher and character researcher I deeply admire. From oracle bone script to today's Chinese character culture, it delves into the role of letters, the evolution of character styles, the relationship between ethnicity and writing, and the evolution of styles based on writing instruments. The large-format illustrations, which are comparable to those published in a museum catalog, provide a comprehensive overview.
While it doesn't directly address the typographic concepts of contemporary designers, its in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of letterforms, centered around handwriting, feels like it offers a soothing respite for today's graphic designers, a point of greatest vulnerability. This book embodies the obsessive love of letterforms from the literal otaku Ishikiwa.
A book that was personally very helpful during the 2017 Typojanchi.