Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

We are bombarded with words today. Public spaces are saturated with a discordant mix of messages, but sometimes a sentence, a word, or even an individual letter stops us in our tracks. LetterScapes features thirty-seven typographic installations in public spaces that demand attention with their graphic impact and communicative power.

The installations can be found throughout the world, from the United States to Europe to Asia. Created in a variety of materials, they vary from huge signs on roofs to a stream of consciousness embedded in a road to structures that appear to be functional or decorative, but are in fact made up of letters of the alphabet.

The book features projects by artists and designers including Joan Brossa, Maya Lin, Lawrence Weiner, Pentagram, and Paula Scher. Interviews provide insight into why the artists chose words over images to transmit the message, how the locations were chosen, how materials and typefaces were selected, and how each work connects with its "landscape." Specially drawn maps show the locations for all those interested in discovering this unique kind of public art for themselves.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Italian graphic designer Saccani here looks at notable typographic installations. This type of artwork includes public constructions that incorporate letters or words as the dominant visual design feature. Her book includes examples of buildings, monuments, and roads that are constructed from large letters or covered in meaningful words. Saccani mostly focuses on architecture in Europe and the United States, but also includes examples from South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. One important example is the Monument to the Victims of 11 March 2004 in Madrid, which commemorates the 191 victims of the Atocha railway station bombing. This large monument is completely covered in the transcriptions of messages left by visitors to the site shortly after the attack. Altogether, the book features 37 such projects, mostly from the past two decades. Saccani's book is successful because it covers each of these works in considerable depth, with background information about the artists, locations, and also the typefaces used. The color photo-reproductions are also very good. -VERDICT Architects and graphic designers will want this book as supplements to more comprehensive works like Richard Poulin's Graphic Design and Architecture.-Eric G. -Linderman, Euclid P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Though it's the result of doctoral thesis research, Saccani's survey of 37 projects that utilize letters, words, and phrases in public spaces around the world is anything but dry and academic. In this inspiring and often moving collection of public artwork, Saccani superbly shows just how versatile simple letters (and even Braille) can be. Powerful public works such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., the stunning monument to victims of the March 11, 2004, terrorist bombing in Spain, and Ilya Kabadov's ingenious "Antenna" in Munster, Germany, a metal sculpture that displays a passage in wire letters that use the sky for a backdrop, among others, demonstrate the myriad ways the public can interact with type. While many of the pieces have a somber tone, there are playful selections as well, from enigmatic Lawrence Weiner's phrases on New York City manhole covers to Robert Indiana's iconic "Love," which has appeared in multiple locations and has been translated into Hebrew, sitting in front of Jerusalem's Israel Museum. Interviews with a handful of artists, maps of the featured installations, and notes on type styles round out this bountiful feast for lovers of fonts and typography. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

In this outstanding and important book, graphic designer Saccani brings together examples of the world's best public architectural graphic design, centered on the use of letterforms as public art--or, as she calls them, "letterscapes." The design of the book (also Saccani's work) is clear, elegant, and distinguished. The photographs are very fine--no small feat in itself when one considers that the 37 works presented here include letterscapes designed to be covered by water, to reveal themselves in shadow upon stone facades, to be viewed from underground, or to appear as thin membranes on aerials high overhead. The resulting works of art will astound casual readers and inspire graphic designers. The well-written text explores the inner workings of these designs, showing how they function, in most cases, as systems incorporating the architecture and environment in which they are embedded. Although more focused in its subject matter, Letterscapes in many ways equals or surpasses Walter Herdeg's edited Archigraphia, (1978), long the fundamental urtext for environmental graphic design. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through practitioners; general readers. S. Skaggs University of Louisville