Today I received a copy of Robert Bringhurst’s new publication, The surface of meaning: books and book design in Canada. It is a handsome, ’coffee-table’ style book showing spreads from 160 years of Canadian printing, with much attention given to documenting the typefaces used and often with detail scans showing the type at large size. As one might expect in a survey compiled by Robert, ample coverage is given to publications in native languages with details of orthographies and some wonderful close-ups of these rare and interesting types. A series of essays connect the illustrated sections of the book.

Strongly recommended.