MACGUFFIN 13: THE LETTER

Design / Typography. MacGuffin, 2023. Paperback, color, 224 pages. 8.3" x 11"

From the press: ‘The Letter’ does not relate to the alphabet alone but to language, to code, to gestures, to media, and more. The letter is a magical symbol, and at the same time a very ordinary thing. It is embedded in specific culture and dependent on the reproduction technologies available at the time. The context is what makes it interesting: the letter is created, used, discarded, forgotten, and (sometimes) revived. Find out about the history of Scrabble, embracing graffiti, how humans perform letters, the culture of protest letters, the meaning of memes, typography that resists the domination of Western typefaces, the narrow binarity of the French language, the left-handed experience, and more.

MacGuffin Magazine Nº 13 is dedicated to language’s basic material: the letter, a seemingly modest sign that can be a force of protest and connection. The Letter dives deep into the infinite world of written symbols, taking in Arabic protest and autocorrection, branded bodies and black typography, found fonts and feminist printshops, graffiti and grimoires, internet memes and interrobangs, language labyrinths and left-handedness, Palestinian resistance and queer typography, slogan T-shirts and secret messages. Featuring: Amy Wu, Ben Clark, Chiachi Chao, Daphne Huisden, Emily King, Farah Fayyad, Ginevra Petrozzi, Inna Kochkina, Jess Baines, Julia Born, Karel Martens, Lou Lou van Staaveren, Mari Lebanidze, Natalie Kitroeff, Offshore Studio, Phaedra Charles, Rasha Dakkak, Silas Munro, Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton, Uta Eisenreich, Will Stovall, Xiaohan Zhang, Yinuo Xuanyuan, Zelda de Hart and many more.