Peter Downsbrough: And Then They Were (1985)

For the first and only time, Peter Downsbrough uses one of the few color photographs he has ever taken, of JFK airport in New York, for the cover of a book. Both the title and the name of the author only appear on the spine. Also for the first time, Downsbrough uses the typographical manipulation of the letters (cut diagonally or vertically) consistently throughout the book, as he had previously done in A SET in 1981. Here, he combines Times Roman and Helvetica, at times even on the same page. Successively, the words AS, IN, IF, and TO are cut in various configurations. Four wedge line drawings, each containing a word (basis, issue, still, split), announce each "chapter." The book comes to a climax on the last two pages as it refers to (being) manipulate(d) typographically with the word maniupulate and the letter'd'.