Great Catalogues--But Bigger Type Please

Architecture without Architects by Bernard Rudofsky is sitting right beside me at the moment, ready for my next foray into the fascinating world of buildings made without formal plans usually by the people who will live or work in them.

Orginally the catlogue for an exhibition mounted in 1964, the book was republished in 1987, and still is worth tracking down.  I found it particularly interesting reading after spending some time reflecting on that architect-driven city, Brasília.

The constructions featured vary from cliff dwellings through ruins of ancient dried brick villages to rowhouses and arcades in modern Spain and Italy.  The overall impression os of organic growth, of spaces developed for uses that the builders understood well.  It is a refreshing change from the monumental scale of the Brazilian capital, and of the other grandiose projects for city centres.

My big quarrel with the book is one I have with many catalogues--the size of the print.  You must have good light to read the text, It is as if the pictures are so much more important that the publisher skimped on the space alloted to the very intersting explanations and elaborations.

The same problem arises with the most interesting catalogue to the recent exhibition of Peruvian art at the Musée des beaux arts de Montréal.  Peru, Kingdoms of the Sun and of the Moon.   I have had to put it aside more than once because my eyes couldn't focus one minute more on the undersized text.  Would have been worth paying an extra $5 or so to have a book which was easier to read.