Handwriting is magic: it transports us back to defining moments in history, creativity and everyday life, and also connects us intimately with the people who have written on those pages. For nearly half a century, Brazilian author and publisher Pedro Corrêa do Lago has been assembling one of the most comprehensive autograph collections of our age. The exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York featured about 140 items, including letters by Lucrezia Borgia, Vincent van Gogh and Emily Dickinson, annotated sketches by Michelangelo, Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin, and manuscripts by Giacomo Puccini, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marcel Proust. The exhibition design by Daniela Thomas and Felipe Tassara responds to the challenge of presenting the documents alongside captions with very long texts and occasional images. The vertical planes offer, therefore, a generous and flexible space to accomodate the varying content. The typography plays a major role in the visual communication: besides the big title of the exhibition at the entrance, it is also used to organise the space into its exhibition areas. The Austin typeface, by Paul Barnes, with its high contrast design and slightly condensed letterforms, adequately fitted the requirements of this project.
