Book review: Tangible

Last November I wrote about Tactile, one of my favourite art books. Not long after that I was actually given its sequel, Tangible: High Touch Visuals, as a present and I've been meaning to write something about it ever since.

Unfortunately, I've been stymied by my inability to write good reviews of things I like. It's hard to know what to say beyond “it's really good, I recommend it”, particularly when, like Tangible, it's a sequel that is almost identical to the original. So, Tangible is more of the same – design that has a physical presence, whether sculpture, installation, product design or costume. This time around the chapters are: Out of the Box; Imitation and Mimicry; Altered Identities; Object and Application; Spatial Compositions; and Public Intervention. Also, the page of text that introduces each chapter now incorporates the chapter title into an image, a fun touch, which hints at a very slightly higher budget this time around.

It's really good, I recommend it! Much like Tactile, I feel like I find new things every time I look through it. Current favourites are Magdalena Bors' strange landscapes, Christian Tagilavini's paper costumes and Joshua Allen Harris' inflatable creatures placed over New York subway air vents.

I do have one question for publisher Die Gestalten, though.

Why does the text on the spines of these two books go in different directions? Tactile uses the UK/US convention of text going down the spine, (when placed face up on a table the text on the spine can then be read from left to right), while Tangible uses the continental European convention of text going up the spine. Obviously the publisher is German, but both books are in English so what's going on? Was this just overlooked when they released Tangible in English?