Mungo Thomson: Font Study (TIME), 2011

Mungo Thomson: Font Study (TIME), 2011, was created by Mungo Thomson, and designed by Mungo Thomson and Mark Owens.

Mungo Thomson’s Font Study (TIME) is an artwork produced by LACMA in a limited edition of 50, signed and numbered, and bound and embossed in the style of library periodicals. This artist book collects Thomson’s drawings of the TIME magazine logo as its design has evolved over the years, from the earliest sample in 1922 to the present day, in what the artist has termed “a phenomenological font study.” The result is a slow-motion flip-book that is itself a study of the experience of time, and an examination of mass culture, graphic design, the book object and the nature of reading.

Thomson’s work in a variety of media explores the mechanics of production and reception. He has been described as a phenomenological artist who works with culture and media rather than light and space. His TIME drawings are a vivid attempt to summon Heidegger’s “distance of the near” – the way we stop looking at common things. Thomson has exhibited his art internationally and published a number of books. In September 2011 he was included in Untitled (12^th Istanbul Biennial) and in January 2012 he took part in The Ball of Artists, the closing event for Pacific Standard Time.

- Edition of 50, signed and numbered
- 196 pages, 13 × 10 × 0.5 nches 
- Printed by Paper Chase Press
- Produced and published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with additional support from the Ralph M. Parsons Fund
- 2011