Thanks to Dan Woodford for drawing my attention to Nina Katchadourian’s ‘Sorted Books’ project–a series of photographs of books with their titles juxtaposed so that they form micro-narratives, poems, jokes… now published in book-form.

Brainpickings quotes Katchadourian: ‘I am always paying attention to the physical qualities of the books, and I try to work with their particular attributes as much as possible. The size of a book carries temperament and tonality, as does the way the text sits on the spine. A heavy volume with large text on the spine, for example, might be exuberant, urgent, pushy; a small typeface might communicate a voice that’s exacting, shy, insecure or furtive’.

And the overwhelming impression that I get from the photos is of a clash of visual voices. Each title moves things in an unexpected direction, as the books agree or disagree among themselves, marshalled by the wit of the artist. I wonder what conversations are going on, unsuspected, on my own bookshelves?