In David Byrne’s Reading Each Other (2021), two people appear engaged in close conversation. Their bodies are composed of stacks of words and, as the title suggests, many methods of communication flow between them. “‘Stop being so literal!’ Boy, have I heard that a lot,” Byrne says when asked about the print. “But, of course, we do read one another, though, OK, maybe not exactly like a book. What we speak is only a small part of what we say, yes? The language of gesture, posture, movement, clothing, expression—we all speak it and more or less understand it, sometimes well and sometimes imperfectly, instinctively, without being taught this language in school.”

Each print is hand signed, titled, and numbered, and comes packaged inside the limited edition of A History of the World (in Dingbats), a hardcover book that is signed by the author and housed in a clamshell case. The limited edition is an Artspace / Phaidon charitable edition with a portion of profits directed to Reasons To Be Cheerful, a solutions journalism nonprofit.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The phenomenally creative musician and filmmaker David Byrne presents new artwork that explores daily life in surprising ways, with unique reflections on shared human experiences—a book for our time from a highly influential artist.

Through striking and humorous figurative drawings, David Byrne depicts daily life in intriguing ways. His illustrations, created while under quarantine, expand on the dingbat, a typographic ornament used to illuminate or break up blocks of text, to explore the nuances of life under lockdown and evoke the complex, global systems the pandemic cast in bright light. Edited and designed by Alex Kalman in close collaboration with Byrne, this unique book reflects on shared experiences and presents history as a story that is continually undergoing revision.

Through striking and humorous figurative drawings, David Byrne depicts daily life in intriguing ways. His illustrations, created while under quarantine, expand on the dingbat, a typographic ornament used to illuminate or break up blocks of text, to explore the nuances of life under lockdown and evoke the complex, global systems the pandemic cast in bright light. Edited and designed by Alex Kalman in close collaboration with Byrne, this unique book reflects on shared experiences and presents history as a story that is continually undergoing revision.

“In the pandemic, we were often reduced to reading each other via screens. As digital culture strives to atomize our relationships, to break us down into mere individuals who never physically meet, we risk being separated from our reading material.” -David Byrne