The Art of Looking Sideways
Alan Fletcher'sThe Art of Looking Sidewaysis an absolutely  extraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness," a virtually  indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images, and bizarre facts that  offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a  renowned designer and art director, and the joy ofThe Art of Looking  Sidewayslies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with  titles like "Colour," "Noise," "Chance," "Camouflage," and "Handedness,"  Fletcher's book, which he describes as "a journey without a destination," is "a  collection of shards" that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply  contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled "Civilization,"  the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a  photograph of an anthropomorphic handbag, Buzz Aldrin's boot print on the moon,  drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of "Ireland--as seen from Wales," and  a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise  words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay, and Gandhi's comment, "Western  civilization? I think it would be a good idea." Fletcher's mastery of design  mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, color, and layout combined with a "jackdaw"  eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read,  but only experienced.--Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk