Bryan Gee on The Image and the Page in Visual Books

On October 27th, 2022 I delivered a talk for the 39th The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada at The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto on the subject of The Image & the Page in Visual Books.

I started with the idea that when most discussions about book design centre on typography it tends to eclipse an adequate understanding of how images work in books. I talked about the need to correct this imbalance both in the theory and history of books and in design education. I outlined a series of visual/ temporal/spacial concepts which are essential to my understanding of the codex form. For example how the cinematic quality of books is native to the form (not imported from movies) and how the forward momentum of books is tied to their portal-like quality. This spatial quality has been idealized in classic title page designs but its action is explicit. We turn a page of a book the way we open a hinged door.

I discussed how I came to graphic design through visual art, and how artists’ books and my work as an art book designer has informed my current project of writing what can best be described as a visual novel. I’m writing the kind of book I have always looked for and wanted to read but never found. A book where texts and images fold together to create meaning in direct relationship with the action and metaphorical richness of the book object itself.