CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/26/2023

Turn-of-the-century typographic revolution in 'Die Fläche'

Featured spreads are from Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911, the exquisite new release from noted publishers of all things typographic, Letterform Archive Books. Presenting all fourteen issues of the Vienna Secession magazine Die Fläche (The Surface) in full-size facsimile, alongside new essays and translations, this 344-page hardcover features a whopping 400 color reproductions and 25 more in black-and-white. “The opportunity to look back at the unique contribution to the graphic arts represented by this reproduction of Die Fläche will hopefully inspire and stimulate new thought and practice,” Diane V. Silverthorne writes. “It was indeed the product of a time full of contradictions. Its progenitors and contributors, energized by sheer exuberance, skills, originality and shared aims, were rooted in late Romanticism, yet forward-thinking to the modern world. Their ambitions extended far beyond the surface of the page: to revolutionize the ways ordinary life was lived.”