Anno's Alphabet, An Adventure in Imagination.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell,
Slim 4to, [32]ff. Illustrated throughout entirely with color plates within b/w elaborate borders. Original quarter cloth and illustrated boards, dust-jacket, as new.
§ First American Edition. Presentation copy inscribed by the author in 1977 in Japanese and English. A fascinating alphabet book by the well-known Japanese artist who has represented each letter as a wood construction that, Escher-like, is actually perspectively impossible. In addition, the borders are visual puns; at first they seem innocuous motifs of flowers, animals, and whimsical creatures in the William Morris tradition, but upon closer examination each one contains objects beginning with the letter in question -- thus the border to the letter “I” is composed of ivy intertwined with iguanas for example. Anno is a highly revered and renowned artist in Japan and has also received high honors in the US, especially for this book. Item #107015
Price: $375.00