The Topology of Typography, El Lissitzky – broadside, Glenn Goluska, 1983

The Topography of Typography was originally written in German and published under the title Topographie Der Typographie in Merz No. 4., (Hanover, 1923). What is not clear is whether Goluska had access to a copy of the original issue, a photocopy, or some other printing of the text, in any event he did the translation himself. The text consists of design principles conceived by the artist, El Lissitzky (1890–1941). Lissitzky was one of several Russian artists, designers and poets active around the years of the Russian Revolution who interested Goluska and whose work he translated into English and issued under his private press imprint, imprimerie dromadaire. Goluska had a master’s degree in Russian from the University of Toronto and had also studied Modern Languages as an undergraduate there. He had a number of Cyrillic types in his printshop and was quite comfortable reading and translating texts in languages other than English. Goluska left his large collection of wood and metal type to Andrew Steeves in Kentville, Nova Scotia. – Chester Gryski

Goluska’s 1984 imprimerie dromadaire spring catalogue lists this piece with the description:

El Lissitzky: The Topography of Typography 4 pages. 11 by 8 inches. Composed in Linotype Trade Gothic Cond., handset Alternate Gothic, and various wood types. 75 copies printed in black, red, & yellow on mouldmade Nideggen. January 1983 $14.

In 1986 Goluska also produced another version of The Topology of Typography, that was included in Tanks Are Mighty Fine Things, William Hoffer, Vancouver, 1986, The CTA copy of Tanks is from Patrick McGahern Books in Ottawa, their description of the folio is as follows:

Vancouver. William Hoffer. Quarto. Various paginations, printed wraps, in blue cloth box., limited to 150 copies, all signed by the authors (except Elizabeth Smart, who was deceased, and El Lissitzky).

Artifact Text

Cover

El Lissitzky | The Topology [o]f Typography | imprimerie dromadaire

Back cover

Translated, designed, composed, & vandercooked by Glenn Goluska at imprimerie dromadaire, Toronto, January 1983 (Dromadary ornament)

Inside, left page

words on the printed page are to be seen, not heard | conventional words communicate ideas, letters give ideas shape. | economy of expression—optics, not phonetics. | the design of the bookspace through the material of composition & according to the laws of typographic mechanics must reflect the strains & stresses of the content.

Inside, right page

the design of the bookspace through the material of the process block, which creates the new optics. The supernaturalistic reality of the perfected eye. | the continuous page-sequence—the bioscopic book. | the new book demands new writers. inkwells & goose quills are dead. | the printed page transcends time & space. The printed page, the infinity of the book, must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY !