Book design as a school of thought ‘On symmetry in the book, on funetion and functionalism in book typography, and against the ideologizing of design systems We are all familiar with the terms symmetrical and asymmetrical typography. In practice, we generally have litte difficulty in assign- ing a book to one or the other category. However, serious consi eration of what symmetry means for books and book typography, of ‘what itcan and cannot achieve, involves familiarity with a term that is almost always applied in a summary fashion, and it may result in ‘4 more rational and dispassionate assessment of typographiie ways and means. An act of enlightenment, then, and thus—like every act of entightenment—a lance against dogmas; in our case against typographic dogmas. Thave chosen the term “enlightenment” deliberately, and a brief {quotation from Immanuel Kantis, I fel, appropriate in this context. Its the opening section of his wonderfully lucid essay entitled ‘An answer to the question: what is enlightenment?” “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his selFineurred imma- turity. Inmaturty isthe inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is selincurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!” Kant was writing quite generally here about a view of the world; but at the more modest and specialized level of typography, one ‘might often likewise say to designers, especially o young designers: “Have courage to use your own understanding!” But now back to our first subject, to symmetry In Ancient Greece, ‘symmetria’ signified measure, harmony. It also meant the right proportion. Its adjective stood for proportionate, appropriate, having a common measure, commensurate. The oppo- site of ‘symmetria’—‘ametria’—had the meaning of immoder- ation, imbalance, ‘The concept of symmetry was thus originally much more com= prehensive than ic is now in general usage. It must be seen in the context of the Pythagorean view of the universe passed on by Plato: ‘a world whose basie principles are symmetry, number, harmony ulm Quoted inthe translation Gernot Bohme:‘Symmeti: ein Anfang by HLB Nisbet, fiom: Hans Rei (ed): mit Pao in: Somers i Kit, Naar Kant plizlwptings Cambie: Cam- and Wives Vl, Darmstd bridge University Press gor, p.54 Roether 1985 (Catalogue for an exhibit tion ofthe same ttle) ‘Sm ad ama, K. Lothar Wall & Robert Wolf: Serie Manster/ Cologne: Bohlan, 296.Book design asa schoo! of thought e and order’, as Gernot Bohme put itin the catalogue of the Symme= try Exhibition in Darmstadt. ‘The mathematical definition of symmetry is narrower but more precise. Wolf and Wolff define it as the regular ‘repetition of ana- lagous—ic. identical, similar or otherwise related—motifs and be- haviours’s itis accordingly ‘governed by the relationship of the part to the other parts and the parts to the whole”. ‘Symmetrical principles were already employed in the early evil- izations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia. The Egyptians, for ‘example, achieved in their ornament all seventeen of the symmetri- cal forms of single-sided pattern known to mathematics. Against the background of this impressive historical perspective, and in view of such a large number of possible symmetrical trans- formations, the only aspect relevant to our purposes—mirror or axial symmetry, also known as bilateral symmetry—appears modest ‘enough, However, applied to book fprgrap, the concept of symmetry ‘does not even function in this restricted sense, as we shall sce. ‘The only thing in book design that displays absolute axial sym- metry is the open book block, in its familiar codex form, Itssymmet- sical axisis the spine, aboutwhich the pages turn. The pages on cach side of the spine are identical Are they really? ‘As long as they are the unprinted pages of a dummy, the answer is yes. Ifthe pages are printed—and this i the only sort of book we are interested in at the moment—the matter becomes more com plicated, for two reasons. First of all, the texts on the facing pages are never identical as to the order of letters in the words and lines, ‘Much more important isthe fact that, as we begin to read, a tem poral process commences, which in addition to the two dimensions of surface and to the dimension of space—we think of the body of the book!—brings the fousth dimension of time. One of the essen- tial characteristies of time is thatthe direction in which it moves is irreversible. We can ‘read the frst three dimensions in similar fash- ion in one direction oranother; whieh is not possible forthe dimen- sion of time’. Just to make things more complicated, itis not necessary to have read Wolllin’s essay ‘On right and left in the image’ to know that right and left are not interchangeable. This is just as true of books asitis of images. We have probably all noticed the way our eyes tend ‘Soci mathematics, Wolf & Wold, The tine dines. Dagober ie: Ba Simmare tie 2 er Phlrophie dr inst Darin eb in Carentan, Bolan: "Symmetse: en Anfang mi Phan Heinrich Wollin: “Uber das Rechts ‘und Links in Bide’ in: Gadel ar Fins. Basel Schwabe 940.PROGRAMM DER KONSTRUKTIVISTEN Ja Alone: double- page spreac from Elemen-Tpapaphie(ato x48 mm) —Both by Jan tare Typographie’ special sue of Tp raphe Mig (10 x 23010) Below spread fom the book Die nme Tichichold, both designed ‘ayes cally, but with syeametrcall placed type seas,