As someone who holds graduate level degrees in both architecture and graphic design I take immense pleasure in participating in a journey of design presented by some of the most talented individuals practicing today. The latest installment in Morphosis' development is by far the most mature of their collected works. Perhaps this is owing to the continued and greater collaboration between architect Thom Mayne and designer+critic Lorraine Wild. To a greater degree than the other two, Volume 3 presents the collection of minds at work at Morphosis. The pages "read" like a piece of architecture, taking us through the visceral experience of space-yet here we are in two dimensions. Literature can at times be difficult, and this book is not an easy experience, but it is worth the time and effort to engage the images, the drawings, the words. Like one of the other revolutionary tomes Ms. Wild has designed-John Hejduk's "Mask of Medusa"-we must pause to think about how to read: The table of contents has been placed in the middle of the book, and we are left to choose our own path through the work, piecing together an understanding which in turn becomes an experience, and that of course, is architecture.
It is visionary like the magazines designer+architect El Lissitzky published, "Vesc Objet Gegenstand," and "ABC." Such visionary books are for inspiration, not illustration, nor are they for the faint of heart.