The A–Z Book (Thomas Ockerse)

Before there was Kelli Anderson’s Alphabet in Motion, there was Thomas Ockerse’s A–Z Book. Although more modest in aim and scope than Kelli’s stunner, it is itself moving in its simplicity, playfulness, and silliness. In showing each of our twenty-six caps in the form of a pop-up book (although nothing actually pops up), Ockerse features forms both stately and ridiculous. It’s fun to see how he gets from A to Z by taking the least obvious route possible. Every film must have a beginning, a middle, and an end—but as the legendary director Jean-Luc Godard famously quipped, “not necessarily in that order.” The same is true of an alphabet book, and here Ockerse has taken full advantage of that notion. A lovely thing.

Watch a flip-through of the whole thing »