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Alphabet of Bones
& other Calligraphies

Alphabet of Bones

The Alphabet of Bones is an original calligraphy composed of anatomically accurate drawings of the hollow leg bones of the Columba Livia, or messenger pigeon. It is a unique, copyrighted font that has twenty-six double characters, conceived as a visual dance. Each character has an alphabetic equivalent in English and an electronically generated sound equivalent. It also has a private symbolic code, similar to the pictographic nature of hieroglyphics, in which each character, or sign, has a cluster of referents. With its digitization, English text and poems can be printed out in The Alphabet of Bones. The sequence determines meaning through interpretive reading. At the surface level, texts, written in this alphabet, read as visual poems.

Click below to see more of this series:

  • The Alphabet of Bones
  • The East Carnegie Calligraphy
  • Wild Birds of Central Park, New York
  • Wild Birds of Los Angeles
  • Les Oiseaux Sauvage du Jardin des Plantes, Paris
© 2011 Joyce Cutler Shaw