The Kaba Ornament

It’s a small miracle that our favorite writers can create a world with twenty-six letters. (We know that only counting twenty-six is a gross oversimplification and that we’re ignoring non-Latin scripts. But hang in there.) As we were writing: It’s a miracle that anything can be done with twenty-six letters. Bram de Does created a remarkable graphic landscape with just two shapes: The Kaba ornament. He’s filled 400 pages with vignettes, borders, and patterns made with just two ornaments. No two arrangements are alike. All are remarkably inventive. A humbling and beautiful book—and a kick-in-the-pants when you think something can’t be done.