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  • Shady Characters

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    (1 review)

    Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks (USA), or Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities (UK), is an illustrated companion book of the website Shady Characters: The secret life of punctuation.

    “Shady Characters weaves a fascinating trail across the parallel histories of language and typography. Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger (†)—which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible—or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (¶) and everyday (&). From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (‽) and as divisive as the dash (—). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts.”

    2013
    by: Keith Houston
    Publisher: W. W. Norton (USA) / Particular Books (UK)
    ISBN: 9780393349726 / 9781846146473
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    Przemysław Sakrajda

      

    I’m a big fan of Keith Houston's publications. The book really makes you want to dig more into history of punctuation marks and makes you think before you use them in your artwork.

    The book has been translated to Polish: „Ciemne typki”, translated by Magdalena Komorowska, published by d2d.pl, hard cover and sewn with threads, ISBN 978-83-940306-2-9

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