Bruno Munari | Libro Illeggibile N.Y. 1

Bruno Munari 

Libro Illeggibile N.Y. 1

New York City, USA: Museum of Modern Art, 1967

[unpaginated], 8.75 x 8.75", staple-bound

Edition of 2000 numbered copies

As far back as 1949 Bruno Munari was producing books under the banner of “libri illeggibili”, or "illegible books". These titles communicate without text - foregrounding format, colour, die-cut elements and (in this case) red thread which binds the book and also becomes a central component of it's content. 

This title, hand-numbered in an edition of two-thousand, was produced for MoMA, where several of the titles were shown in the 1955 exhibition Two Graphic Designers: Bruno Munari and Alvin Lustig. 

“This is a unique book designed by Bruno Munari especially for the Museum of Modern Art. It is one of a group of books in which the visual discourse, rather than a text comprised of words, carries the thread of the story. The “unreadable” book was first conceived by Munari in 1949, and exhibited the same year at the Salto Bookshop in Milan. A small number of copies were handmade by the author. A Presentation Edition of 2000 copies of one unreadable book, with red-and-white cut pages, edited by Peter Brattinga for the Quadrat Blätter series, was published in 1953 by Steendrukkerij de Jong & Company. In 1955 several unreadable books were shown along with other works by Munari in the exhibition: Two Graphic Designers at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1957 they were awarded a Gold Medal at he Triennale di Milano. Nine volumes are now in the Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art.”

- MoMA