SEVEN SECRET ALPHABETS

London: Jonathan Cape, 1972. Anthony Earnshaw's 'Seven Secret Alphabets' spells out an alternative to the the triumph of Universal Standardisation. Never have the letters of the alphabet been more ingeniously portrayed. A half-dressed girl tied to a railway line becomes A - the entwined tentacles of a diver and an octopus make B - an arc of false teeth from C - a voodoo doll stuck with pins becomes K - two pairs of empty but self-supporting trousers shape M - the upraised arms of a cornered burglar make Y. Each picture is a matchless miniature on its own - witty, dramatic or macabre - and each alphabet is more breathtakingly original than the next. Readers of Musrum and Wintersol will recognise in 'Seven Secret Alphabets' an important source of reference, for here displayed are the surrealist humour and visionary draftsmanship that distinguished those two earlier works. As a book of pictures or a visual joke book, 'Seven Secret Alphabets' is outstanding; as a feat of the imagination, it is incomparable. The book contains the seven alphabets, a sight test card (hold at arm's length, a page 'thresspassers will be prosecuted', and 'the end'. Printed in black, brown, red, green and blue. Earnshaw lived 1924-2001. 182 plates. 63 + (1) pag. . 1st edition. Sewed stiff paper cover. Good copy.. 25cmx18,5cm.