Palace of Typographic Masonry

The Palace of Typographic Masonry, an institute dedicated to the wealth and diversity of graphic languages from Arabic to Zapotec, is the brainchild of Dutch graphic designer Richard Niessen (born 1972). An imaginary institution, the Palace brings together Niessen’s graphic-design experiments and his research to create an interdisciplinary cultural history and new theory of typography.

This book offers the reader a tour of an imaginary institution through 195 “exhibits” in Niessen’s Palace of Typographic Masonry, organized as a progression through nine terms: sign, symbol, ornament, construction, play, poetics, dialogue, craft and order. As befits a tour of an imaginary institution devoted to graphic design, this spiral-bound publication is special, printed on perforated cardboard sheets.