Dieter Roth, Books and Multiples; Dirk Dobke, Edition Hansjorg Mayer, 2004.

Recently I’ve ditched efficiency and taken to floating around the library with no direction, picking up books on trolleys, left at the photocopier, shoved back onto shelves in the wrong place. All the best stuff I found today was by accident. This Dieter Roth book was lying in the middle of the floor in the exhibition catalogue section. 

The Art of Looking Sideways; Alan Fletcher, Phaidon Press,

This book is an overload of information in the best possible sense. A treasure trove of anecdotes, quotes, images, useless info, scientific facts, oddities, jokes, memories, organised loosely into 72 ‘chapters’. What more can I say? It’s like diving straight into Fletcher’s mind and exploring the way he sees the world. It’s full of insight and wisdom about graphic design, pattern, form, colour and the arrangement of text: both the form and content of the book are a lesson from the master himself.

This book is light on ‘academic jargon’ and heavy on matters of experience. I like Fletcher for this. There’s no beginning, middle and end; no heavy handed intellectualism. It’s just a collection of interesting stuff to inspire you. No more.

Interesting quotes:

‘I work with things left over from other things’ - Julian Schnabel

‘Curiosity is the mother of intelligence’ - Alan Fletcher

‘I am my brain’s publisher’ - Philippe Stark

‘The man who can’t imagine a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot’ - Andre Breton

‘The hardest thing to see is what is front of your eyes’ -Goethe

‘Realism is a corruption of reality’ - Wallace Stevens

‘God…invented the giraffe, the elephant, the cat…He has no real style. He just goes on trying things.’ - Picasso