A little more on Ben Shahn, who was a master at calligraphy/typography. I have Shahn’s beautiful book called “Love And Joy About Letters” (1964), which was given to me by Jock and Judith Cohen for my Bar Mitzvah! Here’s an extract from the book, which as a whole gives a glimpse into how the letters were, for Shahn, as for the great mystics of Jewish tradition, a gateway to eternity:
” All letters, of course, were once pictures. Can one still discern the head of the ox in Aleph and Alpha and A? Can one see the house in Beth and Beta and B? Why does every Greek letter so resemble the Hebrew equivalent in its name – was that its origin? All this while one works painstakingly, almost painfully, the lip fixed between the teeth, contemplating, wondering about the mysteries, the mystic relationship of the letters growing under one’s hands.”
Here are a few examples of Shahn’s blending of art and letters.
