Mark, you ask in the first sentence of your beautifully typeset introduction: 'When is a typeface not a typeface?' Is that a riddle? Or a direction that type is headed? Some of the characters in the book are simply beautiful letters, while others read as more abstract forms that require careful consideration without their usual typographic context. Would you agree that your result is the beauty of art or precision of craft? This book came about because Dave Foster and I theorised Kris Sowersby’s vast output to be a perfect example of the design/art comparison. Despite the obvious technical requirements, I find type design to be an incredibly artistic pursuit and I think it is very interesting to discuss it in this context.

I am personally very interested in the blurry line between art and design and how these practices can be compared. Gowing: I think a type-art book is the perfect description. What inspired you to create what I view as a type-art book? I asked Sowersby and Gowing to talk more about the role of type and the place of the book in contemporary typographic arts. For New Zealand native Sowersby, the proprietor of Klim Type Foundry, letters are made for commerce but conceived for a swell of motives. There is a simple unconventional beauty to this unique way of showing individual letters on a grand scale.

As presented in this book, it allows us to re-see, or to see for the first time, their individual form and function.' 'It champions the absurd beauty involved in creating multiple expressions of predetermined alphabets through nuance and theory,' says publisher Mark Gowing, who adds, 'While a typeface is a well-considered set of many elements, if one removes the context of language systems and alphabets, each character may be viewed as a singular abstract drawing, as art in its own right. Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters ( Formist Editions) is an 800-page book that examines the type designer's letter drawing practice while considering the characters as independent works of art.

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