abecedarium
![abecedarium](/content/images/size/w960/2023/09/abecedarium-composite-image.jpg)
An abecedarium is an alphabet that arrays letters in order, often presenting each typographic design alongside a word and picture that begins with that letter and represents it. “A is for apple,” for example, calls attention to the form and shape of the A just as it does to the illustrated fruit alongside it.
I was drawn (an occupational hazard) into creating some letters and sketches during a long and wandering phone conversation, so rare and so welcome! I found myself scribbling letterforms and illustrating them with foods evoked in our delicious conversation, in a little blank book whose pages were made with elephant poo paper - poopoopaper.
An artist friend had gifted me this book, its cover embellished with a paste made of her reprocessed Ph.D. draft-thesis writings, mixed with dried flower petals from congratulatory bouquets - so cleverly poetic. Recycling too.
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/cover.jpg)
I've always been a big fan of ABC books, especially those with twisty-ness, and what a lovely word to describe such books – abecedarium – how evocative, and so well spelt out – and abecedarian speaks to beginner's mind – "one learning the rudiments of something"
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/A-Z.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/A-1.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/B-1.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/C-1.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/D.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/E-1.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/F.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/G.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/H-1.png)
... and always felt meh about the image references (A for apple, B for bat, C for cat, D for dog, really? – meh) While I see the value of local reference, things you might actually encounter in real life, I felt there had to be room for some different qualities to the mix.
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/I-1.png)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/J.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/K.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/L.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/M.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/N.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/O.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/P.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/Q.jpg)
I've enjoyed the food-themed direction of the telephone doodles, and I like the shift to Indian cultural reference for describing English-language letters... the most usurping of all languages (it speaks to a very dark C-word history whose repercussions linger on).
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/R.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/S.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/T.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/U.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/V.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/W.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/X.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/Y.jpg)
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/Z.jpg)
It got me imagining searching across the globe for far-flung foods and cross-cultural references, perhaps a map for context... maybe it's a series of books one roaming letter at a time!
- A for Akni, A for Azuki, A for Apfelschorle
- B for Baba Ghanoush, B for Blintz, B for Briouat… etc.
- (The book of X might be a wee bit thin :-)
- A mashup of geographies, foods, letterforms and wanderlust?
The Alphabet Superset
As serendipity would have it, a co-creator in the Brainstorm Road workshop pointed me to Alphabet Superset, launched by Struthless. In a nutshell...
Make something every week for 26 weeks, around 26 topics of your choice, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet - medium, style, output size, and theme stay fixed.
It had just gotten underway, and I jumped onto the alphabet train, to further curry up this half-baked idea, and I've caught up with the B car - woo woo!
Off on another wild train ride - I'll be making letters and sourcing recipes from near and far. I can see that there's going to be an abecedarium section coming to these pages soon...
a stellar reference
![](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/image-6.png)
ABC-3D by Marion Bataille, is a favourite, I bought it for my son when he was in this zone. A 3D pop-up book with some miraculous paper engineering that brings magic to turning the page - for like-minded book nerds, here's a short video
As always, thanks for reading – and for indulging. Bon Appétit!
![moon sketch](https://www.thereluctantillustrator.com/content/images/2023/09/moon-fragment.png)
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