Longhand

Richard Long's hand-lettering is almost the opposite of found type. He very carefully renders a lot of the legends, captions or lists that comprise the print or verbal part of his art. When we were in London at viewing the Richard Long retrospective at the Tate Britain, I was dumbfounded by Long's meditative block-lettering, which complement Long's meditative meanderings throughout the world. Because of the vigilant guards, I was unable to sneak a shot of my faves, but I managed to shoot an invitation showing Long's pencilled, tidy, capitals.

I was also amused to see that the exhibition graphics were in—what else?!—Gill sans, the national typeface of the UK.


On a non-typographical note, like many artists, Long produced books. One accordion-folded booklet reminds me of Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

What does it say about our cultures that Ruscha obsesses about buildings and Long obsesses about stones?