Materials: papers, gouache, acrylic ink, mat board, box

Technique: cut-paper lettering design, calligraphy, paper collage

Size: 7 x 23 cm diameter (in box); up to 100 cm diameter (laid out)

Description: I chose a circular format to symbolise the overall unity as well as the cyclical developments which occurred during the evolution of the letters in our alphabet.

On each circular page of this book is written the historical development of one letter of our alphabet (from its earliest pictographic representations, through its evolution, to some of its current variations). Because so many of the letters of our present alphabet have Roman origins, I chose to write the history in the Roman Quadrata style of lettering, but using a modern adaptation in which the heights and widths of the letters are varied (to symbolise the less-regimented ambience in the artistic climate of the present day). The words spiral outwards from the centres of the circular pages, reminiscent of the way our culture has developed and expanded historically from small beginnings, and each person’s individual creativity similarly blossoms forth from a central core. 

On the reverse of each page is a design based on one particular letter. The letter is mirrored and repeated to form a symmetrical interlocking mesh design. This letter-lace is backed with coloured paper to create a stained glass effect. Just as stained glass windows conveyed messages to the illiterate masses in medieval times, so these designs are intended to appeal to our visually-dependent culture of the late twentieth century. The basic letter shape for each design is taken from one of the many different styles of lettering from past historical periods. The alphabetical order does not follow the historical evolution of the scripts, but rather the style for each letter was chosen primarily to create a pleasing pattern. This reflects the twentieth-century philosophy to select and integrate elements from the past to create a complex pastiche. 

When the pages are sequenced in alphabetical order, the colours of both the writing (in gouache and acrylic ink) and the backgrounds of the cut-paper designs progress through the full spectrum of the rainbow. This signifies the unending cyclical development of our written culture. 

The unbound pages are stored in a protective box, symbolising the precious nature of our alphabet, this kernel of culture which must be treasured and preserved at all costs so that our civilisation can continue to progress and prosper. Around the edge of the box the word “alphabet” is written in a progression of historical scripts and spectral colours. Also in rainbow colours, around the edge of the box lid, are William Massey’s words “Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise, of painting speech and speaking with the eyes? That we, by tracing magic lines, are taught how to embody and to colour thoughts.” On the top of the box lid the word ALPHABET is cut from black paper in a circular design. Inside this, also circular but written in smaller lettering, is “Alphabetical symmetry” and inside this again “By Tricia Smout”. The background of the top of the box lid is shaded in rainbow colours, and around the outside edge is written “More powerful than all poetry, more pervasive than all science, more profound than all philosophy are the letters of the alphabet - twenty six pillars of strength upon which our culture rests.”

Inside the lid of the storage box is written the full explanatory text of the rationale for this book.

Featured in my “Designing with Letters” presentation at the Brisbane Art & Craft Fair in 1998.

Displayed at the Third Artists’ Books and Multiples Fair in Brisbane in 1998.

Exhibited in “Books 01” at Noosa Regional Gallery, and in Indooroopilly Library in 2001.

Exhibited in “A Passion for Paper” in Coffs Harbour in 2003.

Displayed in my solo exhibition “Colourful Language” at Gallery 119 in 2004, and in Corinda Library in 2004 and Toowong Library in 2004-5.

Exhibited in my solo exhibition “Colourful Language at Gallery 159 at The Gap in 2007.

Displayed at Annerley Library and Scattered Arts in 2008.

Printed in “Practical Calligraphy” by Peter Taylor (ISBN 9781741855647) in 2010.

Exhibited in “Undercurrents” at Art Factory Gallery in South Brisbane, and at “Papers, Pages and Prints” at Pine Rivers Regional Gallery in 2011.

Displayed at “Spectrum” at Gallery 159 at The Gap in 2013.

Alphabet Book

Materials: paper, printed text and images, metallic thread, beads

Technique: cut-paper lettering design, text layout, stab binding

Size: 10 x 23 cm

Description: Each page of this book describes the historical development of one letter of our alphabet, from its earliest pictorial representation to its modern symbolic form.   Each page is also decorated with a symmetrical design based on that letter. I created these designs by mirroring and repeating the letter to produce a circular pattern. (The designs are the same as those used in the Alphabet Quilt and the Alphabet Book in a Box)

Displayed in Indooroopilly Library in 2001 and Holland Park Library in 2002.

Exhibited in “A Passion for Paper” in Coffs Harbour in 2003.

Displayed in my solo exhibition “Colourful Language” at Gallery 119 in 2004, and in Corinda Library in 2004 and Toowong Library in 2004-5.

Exhibited in my solo exhibition “Colourful Language at Gallery 159 at The Gap in 2007.

Displayed at Annerley Library and Scattered Arts in 2008, and Toowong Library in 2013.

Displayed at “Atma Calligraphy” in Brisbane in 2014.