Constructive Clarity. Max Bill and His Time, 1940 – 1952
In this 800-page volume of notes by Angela Thomas, Max Bill’s (1908–1994) second wife, the design successfully organises the different narrative layers and contexts, rendering the content more accessible. The excellent typography is based on a single Univers weight in three sizes, yet the use of black and grey type delineates two strands of text that are seamlessly interwoven across the many short chapters and paragraphs. Whereas the majority of the paragraphs are printed in black and reconstruct ever-new episodes from Bill’s life using a variety of sources, they are interspersed on each page with paragraphs printed in grey that provide the author’s personal references to biographies, relationships, literature, artworks and so on. (The footnotes at the bottom of the page are strictly limited to bibliographical references.) A further layer of the design are the numerous pages containing between one and three small-format images, providing additional context without allowing Bill’s own aesthetic to dominate. The varying sizes and largely free placement of the images are different on each page, and this is reflected in the captions via a subtle system. A great deal of white space is left on the image pages, which, along with the excellent organisation of the material, helps make the book’s content feel surprisingly light and accessible. The dust jacket of thin paper and the softcover give this heavy object a surprisingly soft feel. While the large black-and-white portrait on the cover leaves no doubt as to who is being celebrated here, the authority belongs to the omniscient narrator, whose name appears in the same size type as that of her husband in the freely positioned title.
