Author: Prem Krishnamurthy
What’s the appeal of letters—both as crafted objects with a specific history, and as a mode of communicating, relating, and thinking? And in what way can critical writing learn something from this type of address?
This debut book by designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy is a series of epistolary essays from Krishnamurthy addressed to the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara. Kawara is best known for his “Today” series, a nearly lifelong series of paintings where the artist painted each day’s date in geometric-looking lettering. Krishnamurthy begins his letters by noting his frustration, as a graphic designer, with Kawara’s lettering. But as the essays progress, he explores the history of typography, graphic design, mathematics, politics, community, and race. The structural conceit (the title’s clever double meaning quickly becomes clear that it’s a book on letters but also a book of letters to On) creates a strange intimacy, making for a soft, personal, and stunning text of both memoir and art and design criticism.
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