:i

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Eric
Gitl in Jerusalem:
Artistic \\Iorh artd,
Sp iritual Affirmatiorl
By GnscoRY T Gnaalps
An"
bright January afternoon in 1993I entered for
\-/the first time the Rockefeller Museum in East
Jerusalem.' More an academic institution than a
museum, the building now is the home of the Israeli
Antiquities Authority. Oddly, however, I noticed
familiar-looking sculptures around the courtyard
perimeter and gallery signs in a somehow familiar
lettering sryle. Both looked vaguely like the work of
Eric Gill, but I quickly dismissed the idea, for I had
never read that Gill visited Jerusalem. Why would
Gill have done sculptures for what I thought was
originally an American institution named for John D.
Rockefeller, Jr.? But such questions only indicated
the degree of my ignorance and confusion about the
history of Jerusalem, with its complex pbysical,
political. and relisious organisation and multiple
layers of its long history.
As I discovered, however, the sculpture and the
lettering are, indeed, the work of Eric Gill, the
eccentric British letter-cutter, type designer, book
illustrator, sculptor, and essayist who lived from 1888
to 1940. There are actually ten relief sculptures by
him within the inner courtyard and a larger one oyer
the enrance. He and his assistant, Laurie Cribb, also
did the lettering for the gallery signs. All this work
was done in 1934, on the first of two trips Gill made
to Jerusalem toward the end of his life. He visited a
second time in 1937. His experiences in Jerusalem
are well documented, for he kept fastidious records in
the form of letters, diaries, daybooks, ledgen, expense
booklets, copies of estimates, scrapbooks, and
drawings.!' Jerusalem is'also the title of a chapter in
his autobiography. Considering the brevity of his
visits, he did aconsiderable amount of work there that
represented the full range of his talent in sculpture,
lener-cuning, drawing, and type design. In srudying
Gill, however, one can easily remain ignorant of these
because they are little covered by his biographers.
Furthermore, criticism of his work thcre is dismissive.
Few like'an Arabic typeface he designed, and &e Rockefeller
sculptures are referred to by one critic as '...perhaps minor
works in Gill's oeuwe.... The rcsults, as far as one cqn
judge
from photographs, are a good workmanlike job."'.
This
neglect of his Jerusalem experience by critics and biographers
is completely at odds with Eric Gill's own opinion. Jerusalem
was to Gill a revelation
-
a turning point
-
in his life.
Jerusalem is, indeed, an extraordinary city. It is of
spirirual significance to ttrrce of the world's grcat religions
-
Catholicism, Islam, and Judeism. For travellers and visitors, a
lAxlltAEv aa66 rr rr
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Studio Portait of Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope.
Photo credit: The Black Watch Museurn, Perth.
journey
to Jerusalem is often a singular and inspirational
experience, and many have written eloquently of their
experiences there. One characterisation appropriate to our
story is that of Sir Ronald Storrs, military governor of
Jerusalem between l9l8 and 1926, who wrote: "I cannot
pretend to describe or analyse my love for Jerusalem.... There
are many positions of greater authority and renown within and
without the British Empire but in a sense I cannot explain
there is no promotion
after Jerusalem."'. Many of the British
officials w-ho served in Palestine during this period had a
similar dedication to their assignment and were renewed
by
Jerusalem's spirituality. Considering that Gill's religious
belief was central to both his life and his art and that he had
converted to Catholicism at age thirty-one, a trip to Jerusalem
seems perfectly fitting
-
almost of necessity"
Without the commission at the Rockefeller, however.
Gill would probably not have gone there. To quote one
biographer, "Eric lacked the curiosity of the bom traveller."''
He admits this himself: "I'm no
Isic]
particular good at
travelling. . .l don't like sight-seeing or acquiring information
and I am no good at foreign languages."'' Although trips to
Jerusalem and the Holy Land have long been popular for the
British, Gill, clearly, would never have planned such a
sightseeing trip. Thus, he visited Jerusalem almost as if by
fate. As fate would have it, these trips were most significant
to Gill. According to biographer Fiona MacCarthy, the
experience divided Gill's life into "pre- and post-Jerusalem"u'
phases. In the post-Jerusalem phase, Gill became ever more
determined to speak out against what he called "capitalist-
industrialism," writing,
*Hence
forward I must take up a
position even more antagonistic to my contemporaries than
that of a mere critic of the mechanistic system.'a'
The First Yisit
Gill's visis to Jerusalem came at a portentous time in
that city's modern history. He came during what some
historians consider the second and more violent half of the
British mandate
-
a time of banditry, shifting alliances,
rising tensions between the home government in London and
British officials in Palestine, increasing Jewish immigration,
and a significant transformation from an Arab and agrarian
society to a Jewish and industrialised one. This was a time of
struggle between Arabs and Zionists for control of a
homeland, a struggle that continues today.
Gill's first trip to Jerusalem took place between March l0
and July 27, 1934 when he went there to carve ten sculptural
panels for the Rockefeller Museum, an archaeological edifice
designed by the British architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison.
32 ANTIQUAHIAN BOOK MONTHLY
Harrison had most likely heard of
Gill through fellow architect Erich
Mendelsohn, who in turn knew of
Gill because he had been asked in
1933 to teach typography at the
Acad6mie Europenne M6ditenane,
a propo3ed modernist art school on
the French Riviera. The faculty was
to include Mendelsohn, as well as
Paul Hindemith and Serge
Chennayeff. Funding for the school
never materialised, but Mendelsohn,
an architect and a Zionist who
designed many buildings in Israel,
most likely recommended Gill to
Hanison.
The Rockefeller Museum is the only
cultural institution founded by the
British during the mandate. It was
the gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,
who gave two million dollars for its
building and maintenance in 1928. It
was intended as an archaeological
institute, "throwing light on the past
of man in Palestine."t' Austen St
Barbe Harrison, then serving as the
architect to the government of
Palestine, was selected to design the
museum despite suggestions by the
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) that the design be
opened to an international competition. Gill began drawings
for the sculptures at his home in Pigots beforc he left for the
Middle East. At one point, Sir George Horsfield, chief
archaeologist at Jarash (in modern-day Jordan), came to
confer with Gill on the project. Thus began Gill's work and
prepararion for his trip.
-
Despite his self-characterisation as a poor traveller, Gill
quickly became enthusiastic about the trip. He made his way
to Palestine by boat, accompanied by his assistant Laurie
Cribb, on the S.S. Rajputana. The ship stopped at Tangiers,
where Gill was attracted to the robes worn by the Arab men,
and then went on to spend a day in Marseilles, ". . .one of the
most lovely cities in the world....'D' He landed at Port Said
on March 21, 1934, then boarded a train and travelled on to
Lydda, where the tracks split, one for the coast and the other
for Jerusalem. To his wife, M4ry, Gill wrote: "We are in
Palestine
-
very near Jerusalem. It is as you'd expect
-
two
extremes meeting. Camels and mules and donkeys. . .and
young men and women and children exactly as all the Bible
pictures. . . alongside, power stations, soldiers in khaki
etc...."'o'
He arrived in Jerusalem on March 22 and went directly to
Harrison's home for brcalfast and a bath. He was then taken
to the Convent dei Dominicains, a French instinrte, that also
supported an important archaeological institute, where he
stayed initially. The next day he went to the Rockefeller and
began work, first rcworking his drawings for the panels. Thus
began a busy schedule for Gill that mixed days working
extensively at the museum with travels to historical and
religious sites in Jerusalem and Palestine. In his diary he
noted that a typical day involved rising at 6 a.m., going to
Mass at 6:30, having breakfast, and starting work at 8am.
Lunch was at noon and he worked until 5 or 5:30pm. Writing
letters occupied his time until 7:30, then it was dinner time.
He customarily read for an hour after dinner and was asleep
The Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem. Photo credit The Black lYalch museum, Perth.
JANUARY 1999
Final Sketchfor EgYPt.
Photo credit: UCLA'
interested in Islamic art and culture. (Today there is a Mayer
Institute and Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem.) Exactly
when and how discussions for this typeface began is unclear,
although Mayer probably first saw Gill's efforts with Hebrew
in the gallery signs at the Rockefeller. Regardless, Gill notes
in his daybook that drawings were sent to Mayer in April
1937, and he made an entry in his ledger book for them on
December 31, 1936. He carried on work with this project
through 1937.
The Second Trip
While this Hebrew typeface project certainly kept the
1934 trip to Jerusalem present in Gill's mind, the spirit of the
city also had a profound impact on him and motivated him to
return. In 1937 he wrote to his friend, Desmond Chute, in
Italy and suggested a trip to Jerusalem together. Gill
expressed eagerness to return, drawn by the hot weather and
because the "Holy Land remains holy."
"'
Although the trip
with Chute never materialised, Gill himself did retum in 1937.
The second trip to Jerusalem, which took place between
May and July of 1937 was funded by Gill's friend, Graham
Carey, and is referred to by Gill as a holiday. Although he
had work and projects there, they were less demanding than
the Rockefeller sculptures and not as settled at the time of
departure. This time he travelled with his wife, Mary; they
went by train through Europe, and then took a ship from
Trieste to Haifa. They clearly enjoyed themselves together
-
this trip seeming to him less of a family affair and more like a
second honeymoon. Whilst there, Gill also flew to Cairo rvith
Austen Harrison.
Although the projects on this second trip were less
demanding, they were certainly more varied. Furthermore,
they illustrate the extent to which Gill had become well-
connected within the British circles of influence in Jerusalem.
First, he worked for Dr. J.C. Strathearn, warden of the
Ophthalmic Hospital of the Order of St. John. Here he carved
two tablets for the hospital, one in memory of Genevieve
Lady Watson, a benefactor, and the other in tribute to the
work of William Edmund Cant, a doctor at the hospital. Gill
was asked by Sir Arthur Wauchope to carve a stone at the
Scotch Church in Jerusalem in memory of the men of the
34 ANTIOUARIAN BOOK MONTHLY
Sketclt: Israel Brought Their l-aws.
Photo credit: UCI"4
Black Watch, Royal Highlanders
(to which Wauchope
belonged), rvho had died in battle in Palestine. He also did a
carving for the Haifa Government Hospital, a building
designed by his friend, Erich Mendelsohn. There was also a
facade for the Barclays Bank in Tel Aviv, most likely for
Austen Harrison.
Gill seems to have become involved in designing
Postage
stamps for the mandatory government' as well, although
details on this activity are not numerous. He notes in his diary
of the trip that he met on May 19 with Mr. Webster, P.M.G.
(Post Master General, presumably) about postage stamps'
Later, he notes starting drawings for the stamps on the voyage
home; but no images survive.
Gill was also engaged during this trip on two typeface
projects: continuation of work on the Hebrew typeface for
Mayer, as *'ell as initial discussions on an Arabic typeface for
Sir Wauchope. Gill had sent drawings of the Hebrew tyPe to
Mayer in April 1937, and he was now refining this type with
Mayer's input. Punches were made by the Monotype
Corporation. while trial castings were made in Enschede,
Holland. Monotype approved the font in February 1938,
listing it as Series 487.
The other project was an Arabic typeface, commissioned
by Sir Wauchope for the new Government Printing Offrce. Its
building was finally in the process of construction in 1937
after Sir Wauchope had been long engaged in convincing
London of the need for the facility, with correspondence and
estimates dating back to 1932. After he received permission
to build, it rvas again Austen Harrison who designed the
structure. In view of his dedication to this project" it seems
natural that Wauchope wished to inaugurate the operation in a
special way by commissioning its proprietary Arabic
rypeface. Gill submined drawings to Wauchope in September
1938. Holever, many critics
-
Particularly
Arab
calligraphers to whom the drawings were shown
-
denounced the design, and the face was never cut.
Gill was also interviewed on the Palestine Broadcasting
Service during this trip. Although no detailed record of this
program has been found, he does indicdte in a letter to
Graham Carey that the title was "Art in England, as it seems
to me." In this lecture and interview, Gill ". .
'.took
the
JANUARY 1999
Gill's sketch of Gibraltar
whilst travelling to Israel in
1934. Photo credit: UCLA
opportunity to rub in the connections between art. . .and
commercial industrialism."
15'
Finally, Gill, apparently, made friends with David
Ohanessian, an Armenian originally brought to Jerusalem
from Damascus to make tiles for a British-sponsored
restoration of the Dome of the Rock. Gill first records a visit
to Ohanessians's on May 20, to see his pottery works. He
subsequently returned numerous times, making drawings of
the old city from the studio window, as well as drawing on
pottery. In a letter, Gill writes how, regardless of the value of
the drawings themselves, doing them provided ". . .a fine way
of staying put and thus really soaking up the scene."
'''
This
is an interesting statement for a man who, according to
biographer Robert Speaight, had no taste for landscape.
Jerusalem seemed to calm Gill and allow him periods of
reflection.
As during the first trip, Gill travelled to various biblical
sites, although less extensively than before. He returned to
Bethany, Jericho, bathed in the Dead Sea, had lunch on the
banks of the Jordan, and returned to Ein Karem. However,
his major excursion was to Cairo. Gill flew there with Austen
Harrison, while Mary stayed in Jerusalem. This trip occupied
five days and included visits with John Gayer-Anderson, a
well-known Englishman living in Cairo whose lovely and
well-restored Cairen home is today open to the public as a
museum. The men seemed to have a grand time of it, going to
a casino and seeing "arab dancers." In addition, they visited
numerous churches, went to Sultan Hasan Mosque, visited El
Azha University, and had a Turkish bath. Gill went
frequently to the suqs to be measured for another galaba. Of
the old city Gill says, "Cairo itself is a corupt and bad old
city
Q
should think) and very hot and enervating."
r7'
From
Cairo he and Harrison flew to Jaffa, walked to Tel Ayiv, then
returned to Jerusalem by car on June 9.Just before leaving
Jerusalem, Gill finished both the Scotch inscription and that at
St. John's Hospital. He and Mary left Palestine on June 28
and were back in London on July 12.
Viewpoints
In his autobiography, Gill writes that "Palestine was the last
of the revelations vouchsafed to me. It confirmed and
JANUAFY 1999
Sketch of Gill's entitled
"Tombs
of SS
Martha and ltzarus at Marseilles"
frotn first
trip. Photo credit: UCLA.
enfolded all the others."
t8'
Debpite such a powerful
statement, little is recorded by Gill's biographers about the
trips and none has sought to understand them in historical
context or interpret their significance to Gill personally. One
hint of their importance, however, comes in the introduction
to Eric Gill: Jentsalem Dia4', a series of letters compiled by
his wife and published posthumously. In her brief
introduction to the book, Mary writes, ". . .The Holy Land,
which he regarded as much a pilgrimage as a
journey to some
work to be done."e' Thus, although Gill initially went to
Jerusalem only because he had work there, his trip became
something more. Indeed, it had a strong spiritual impact and
can be fairly described as a sacramental experience. Only in
his autobiography, written just months before his death, does
Gill elaborate on the spiritual impact of Jerusalem: "In the
Holy Land I saw a holy land indeed; I also saw, as it were eye
to eye, the sweating face of Christ."
''
Further, ". . .while I
never saw or imagined anything more lovely than the Holy
Land
-
whether you think of it as a land or as human
habitations, so also I never saw anything less comtpted by
human pride and sin. And I understood as never before the
vinue of poverty and how peace on earth can have no other
basis."
:''
Infused with rediscovery of the power and virtue
of poverty, Gill rerurned from Palestine more determined than
ever to defeat "capitalist-industrialism," even if so doing
required that he become more antagonistic towards his
contemporaries.
Such declarations, however, are strikingly at odds with
events actually taking place in Palestine at the time of the
visits. Palestine in the 1930s was a dangerous place, where
innocent people on all sides
-
Arabs, Jews, and British
-
were killed in the streets. As noted before, during this period
tensions were at their highest and the British themselves were
the focus of considerable violence. Sir Arthur Wauchope, as
High Commissioner, was at the centre of this maelstrom. ln
fact, Wauchope's tenure has been somewhat discredited for
his alleged failure to show the required firmness in dealing
with the Arabs. Gill certainly knew of the tensions and was
aware of the violence, and also had the advantage of beirig
privy to official reports. He notes "talking politics" a numhr
of times in his 1937 travel diary with Hanison, Wauchope,
ANTTOUARIAN BOOK MONTHLY 35
and others. In short, there could be no illusions on his part as
to the nature of the situation.
One explanation for Gill's characterisation of Palestine as
holy and uncorrupted is the romantic, orientalist, and
imperialist British view of the Arabs as being simple and
unspoiled. As R.D. Kernohan writes in The Road to Zion,
one's associates or colleagues are important in forming the
opinions of the "modern pilgrimage" to Palestine: ". . . the
advice he receives on the spot almost invariably reflects the
politics and nationality of the adviser.
2'
Gill's advisers were
men like
Wauchope who
were sympathetic
toward the Arabs
at this time, so
Gill himself
developed a bias
toward the Arab
viewpoint in
Palestine. While
he appreciated
that tbe Zionists
had made
important
improvements,
such as providing
a reliable water
supply and
expanding the
usable
agricultural land,
his anti
Sketch of Mar Saba, 1%4 fip.
Photo credit: aCIA.
industrialist
stance biased him
against them and
strengthened his
stereotypical view
of unencumbered
traditional Arab life as simple and unspoiled.
Not only does his characterisation of Palestine as
unspoiled appear odd, but his expressed opposition to
capitalist-industrialism grossly overlooks his own role in
Palestine. First, Gill worked in Palestine as a result of
connections with influential people. His introduction came
through Erich Mendelsohn, the influential Zionist and
architect; he was chosen by the architect to the mandatory
government, Austen Harrison. Finally, he became friends with
the high commissioner. Sir Arthur Wauchope. Further,
just
as
his other large sculptural works of the period
-
the BBC
building in London or the League of Nations in Geneva
-
were projects for large corporate or governmental bodies,
likewise, the Rockefeller Museum was a monument financed
by none other than a millionaire, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. In
addition, as the sculptor at the Rockefeller, Gill was quite
literally an employee of the British mandatory government,
and the building was a clear expression of British imperialist
power, with its contrived effort to depict harmonious and
balanced historical influences in Palestine. Gill, therefore,
was not expressing his own interpretation of historical events
in Palestine, but rather lending his hand to communicating the
ideas of those in power. As Nitza Rosovsky writes about the
Rockefeller: "Here Harrison created a building that fulfilled
the highest possible role of public architecture, namely to
express the spiritual ideals that its sponsors and donors wish
to rcpresent."
a''
If not capitalist, these spiritual ideas were
36 ANTIOUARIAN BOOK MONTHLY
certainly heavily laden with British imperialism.
Tfuee and a half years after his return frorn the second trip
to Jerusalem, Gill died of lung cancer at the age of frfty-eight.
Robert Speaight wrote concerning Gill's trips that "Palestine
was a viaticum."
2''
The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia
defines viaticum as "Holy Communion given to those facing
life-threatening circumstances in order that they may be
imbued with God's grace on their
journey
into eternal [fe." A
colleague has suggested that the tenn can also be inteqpreted
to mean "food for the
journey
to the next life." This view is a
thought-provoking description of Gill's Palestine trips. Just
months before his death, during the spring and early surlmer
of 1940 when he was suffering from congestion of the lungs,
Eric Gill finally offers in his autobiography an assessment of
what Jerusalem meant to him and reveals the degree to which
it was, indeed, food for his next life. The city had become a
metaphor of the spiritual, un-industrialised, anti-capitalist
community he had espoused throughout his life and had
provided the spiritual experience that prepared him for his
afterlife.
ii, ir
l.Much of tbis material is available at the William Andrewq
Q!a*
Memorial Library, an off-campus library that belongs
1o
the
University of California at L,os Angeles. Another valuable collection
is at the Gleesoa Library. Univenityof San Francisco. -,
i.
,
,,-i,,
.
2. Malcolm Yorke, Eric GiIl: Man of Flesh & Spirir (London:
Con'stable & Co., Ltd., l98l), p.236.
::'. ; -
'
3. Sir Rooald Storrs, Ifte Memoirs of Sir Ronald Srorrs (New York:
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1937), p.465.
.',
.
4. Robert Speaieht" The Ufe ol Eic Grl ([,ondon: Metbuem & Co.,
Ltn.,1966), p.244.
5. Eric Glll, Autobiography
(London: Lund Humphries Publishers,
1992),p.251.
.,,,,:,
6. Fiona MacCarthy, Eric GiII: A Inver's
Quest for
An & God (New
York: E.P. Dutton, 1989), p.263.
7. Gill, Autobiograplry, p.257.
, .-,.
p.387.
. .'..1-;i{,.
l6Jbid-, p389.' r,
-,1-'
17. Shewring, IrScrS, p388.
18. GIII, Autobiogrdihy, p.253.
19. Gill, Jerasalem Diary.
20. Citll, Autobiography,
9253.
21. Ibid, p.256.'
; ;.:,,
:
22. R.D. Kernohan,'.'Zhe Road to Zon TraigllCis to
I-arul of Israel (Edinbrngb: The Handsel Priss L!d: 19?5.
23. Nitza Rosovsky, City of the Gre:at King
ii
Massachuse(s: Harvard Univenity Press, 1!p6),p.439.
24. Spefieht, Iife of Eric GiIl,p.24.
14. Letter from
p41g,Gill to Desmond.Chutc_.24 Janulrv-1937.
Gleesoo Library;Uoivittity of San Franciscorirj;E,
],,i.ffi
i
I S.Lctter from Eric- Gill to Graham -Carey.'? Julyrl
9iTr::.YdFr
Shewring, d., I-eneyi of Eic Grtt (Ipndon::J-o-*th"6"gp,ri:tpl,
6-, ll
So^^/s
In tht 1930s, tht grca!
|,pr dcsigncr l:rit Gill tnthustns!icnll.y'trorkr'd oti an Arabic t.yplau. ll was doond.
Dressed in sandals and a djellabalr and wearing a khafiya, the British
typograplrer and sculptor Eric Gill traveled to Jerusalem in 1934. r\s he
wrote in his autobiography, he felt as though he rvere r.r'alking rt'ith tlie
Apostles and living in the Bible. Brouglrt there to carve sculprures for a
nel,r'museum, Gill took tea in the teahouses of the OId City, relaxcd
'n
'
Turkish bath at day's end, or rvalked, as Christ did, to Gethsemane, in tlie
Judean
desert and to
Jacob's
well. This trip and a later oue in 1937 affecteci
Gill profoundly, serving to strengthen his religious convictions and tc
inspire hirn in his role as an outspokeu critic o[ capitalist socien. The vis-
its were equally rich and inspirational to him as an artist; he did an enor-
mous amount of nork in
Jerusaiem,
including sculpture, draning, cut-
ting memorial stones, and designing fype. This storv follon's the desisn
of his Arabic typeface, a rypeface that he never cornpleted.
in 1933, Gill was asked to teach at the Acad6mie Europ6enne M6diter-
ran6e, a proposed moderni.st art school on the French Riviera l'liose fac-
ulty later included Paul Hindenrith, Serge Chermaleff, and Eric Mendel-
sohn. Although funding for the school never materialized, Gill had the
opportunity to meet Mendelsohn, the architect and Zionist who de-
signed many buildings in
Jerusalem
and, later, elsewhere in Israel. It was
Mendelsohn who most likely recommended Gill as the sculptor for tlie
new museum in
Jerusalem.
Shortly after the demise of this Acad6mie project, Gill journeyed to
Palestine in the spring of 1934 to carve the sculptures for the Rockefeller
Museum inJerusalem. His work at the museum included carving ten wall
panels, the fountainhead in the central courtvard, the q'mpanum panel,
and the signs in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. In Ma1, 1932 he returned
IO8PRINT
to Palestine for a rvorking vacation, carving a sculpture for St.
John's
Hos-
pital in lerusalem and traveling to Cairo. It rvas on this second trip that he
receiled a comnrission to design an Arabic q,peface.
The first menlion of the t1'peface appears in hisjournal account of the
trip on June 12.Ig37,u4rich reads:
'To
Gov't Ilouse for lunch rr irlr MEG
and H.[. Talked about printing, arabs and all sorts." The entrl refers to
Cill's rrife, ivlarr (lVlEG), and to Sir Arthur \Vauchope, l-lis [xcellency
(H.E.). lt rvas \\'aucltope, then British High Connrissionel in Palestinr'
u4ro contracted the typeface for the Covernment Printing Office ir
Jerusalem.
lndeed, Gill arrd Wauchope \\'ent to thc printinl office to-
gether to further discuss the project, as Gill's journal entrv oi June 16 in-
dicates. From the letter sent by Gill to Wauchopc u'ith his {rrst drarr'ings,
it iS clear that the g,peface was specificalll designed for linotlpe and
monon pe machines at this printing office.
Arabic is a Semitic language and, like Hebrerr', is nritten from right to
left. Its alphabet consists of 28 letters; all are consonants. There are no
capital leners or punctuation marks. All the letters have four forms: ini-
tial, medial, final, and separate (see
Gill's table for these in Fig. 2). In
other rrords, the shape of letters changes somel'hat depending upon
their position rlithin a rvord. As a result, there are significanth,more than
28 characters to be designed u,hen producing an Arabic q'peface. The in-
creased number of
rype
sorts required is not an insurmountabie prob-
lem rvith handset t1,pe, but it is a serious limitation rr'ith monon'pe and
linon'pe because of limited space for matrices.
Fig, 4 shorvs Gill's loose pencil drawings of individual Arabic charac-
ters. Presumabh. this is how he began-bv becoming farniliar rr'ith the
T::t;
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.i
l. Sample of i:ic Gill's unceveioPed
a:aric tvpeface Once the typeface was
c:avn. Gill testeci leiter conbinatlons
src): as these Courtesy of 5t'Bride
Pr:rt:ng Lib:a:;. Londc;.
2. Gill s table ci lhe four Arabrc
.e::erforms. ;:.:::a;, neCtal. 6nal anci
separate Cour:esy of the Wiliiam
.:-:.d:ews Cia:i. Library oi UCLA.
3. G:ll coilect:c exanpies c: Arabtc
:'.':ography such as this one io helD
s.:a:e hrs vrs:on of hrs own Arabtc
:-':e:ace Lo:::esv cl the wlillam
.-:.C..r, Cla:k i-rtrary of UCLA
letterforms. Then canre a much more careful rendering of individual
.{rabic lettos. Fig. 5 reveals Gill's precisell outlined letters, partially
blackened in pencil. His ren'orking of certain letters is apparent in his ex-
tending the tail on some and shortening the descenders on others. Next
came a sheet of individual letters done in pen and ink (Fig.
6). Pieces
\\'ere carefull), cut out of this page and rearranged into words. He pro-
dlrced a sheet of rthat appear to be entire \\'ords in Arabic, all carefull)'
and evenh blackened in ink with a comment b), Cill:
"Note:
These are
not intended to be real \\,ords but onh, to sho\\, combinations and let-
ters." This sheet is dated October 1, 1937, and is signed CE, the initials
reading from rigirt to left, mimicking Arabic.
After this stage \ras completed, Gill evidentlv made a photostat of the
original sheet to produce a clean copy u'ithout the outline of the cut-
tings. On this copv he carefulli, made final alterations, shortening the
stroke of certain final letters and terminating u'ith a serif rather than a
calligraphic flourish. He also removed the flourish from certain descen-
ders. He shortened the descender on the initial a or alf, and in one case
he added a letter entirely. Undoubtedly, th.is is the drawing he sent to Sir
\\huchope (Fig.7).
In his letter to \Arauchope accompanying the drau'ing, Gill wrote:
'As
\ou will remember, you commissioned me to make this design as the re-
sult of our conversation in which i said that it $,as a great pity that the ex-
isting Arab q?es were merely imitations of Arab handwriting and that
nothing had been done by typefounders to reconcile the wrinen forms of
Arabic letters with the exigencies of printing type." Thus, although \{au-
chope commissioned the t)?e, it was Gill rvho initiated the project as a
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5.
U
llOPRINT
re$uJt of his interest in the inherent typographic comPlexities posed b1,
Arabic. That interest seems natural given his presence in Palestine, the
source of Semitic languages and alphabets and an inspiring place for any-
one involved in $,pography.
On Mav 19, 1934, for example, Cill visited
the British excavations in
Jer:'ish,
in present-dayJordan, and dreu' Rontan
alphabets from the large inscriptions orl I{adrian's arch.
Another irr.spirltion n'as the British ivlitndate lau'establishirtg Enslish,
Arabic, and l-lebrerl as Pllestirte's three official languages. Cill sart sigrts
put up by the British after \{orld \{ar I to ntark intersection.s in tire Old
Cin'and he was required to carve such signs at the Rockefeller Musetrm.
.
But tlre most influerrtial source of Gill's entlrtrsiasrn for.\rlbic culture
and its alplrabet rlas the Donie of the Rock, the gold-dorned buildirtg
that donrinates the
Jelusalenr
sltylirre in its position on a lrrrge plaribrm
krrorr'n as rhe Ilaram al-Sharif, or Noble Sattctuary. Built in 691 ,r.tr. by
Abd al-l\4alik, the Urnal'yad governor of
je
rusalenr, the Donre of the Rock
n'as described bv Cill in lris autobiograplrl' as
"
. . . the ntost beautiful
place I have evc'l'seen . . . tlre nrost civilized, tlte tttost ctrltLtred, tlte ntost
quiet and serene, tlte ntost spaciott.s, tlte rnost spiritualll'pervaded place
norr rernaining in the rvhole u'orld." I-le trndoubtedl)' studied and tlas
influencecl by tlre earlv rttotrtttttetttal irrscriptions on tlre interior perirne-
ter ol tlre dorne.
Despite his irrspired ellorts, Cill's Arabic t1'peface renrairrs his ortir clc-
siqn tlrat \vas nevcr cut ir)to type. Although hc could not ltave predicted
tlre ihte ol'this design, he certainll, appreciated the possibilitv of opposi-
tion to it. In the \\/auclroltc letter he wrote:
"ltt
the first place sclrolars and
paleograpiters will strongl)'object to the artcierlt and bear.rtihrl Arab tr'rit-
ing bcing tlrus coercecl ir)to wltat n'ill sc'ern to thenl a rvickedly rnecharri'
cai nrould.'f heir irrfluertce rvill alr'r'avs be to plonrote ils llear as possible
an e\act in-ritntiorr of the best fbrrns of calligr:rplrv."
Tr-r urrderstand Cill's prenronitiott. otte rtttlst appreciate the protoLrrtd
relatiorrship behveert Arabic calligraphv rncl Islanr. Arabic languaee and
script canie into plonrinence sinrttltarteotlsh'tlitlr the rise of Islarn as one
ol tlre rvorld s nlrjor religions. Becattse the Korrrr, tlre ho\' book of
lslanr, is regarded as tlre direct rvord ol Gocl as revealed to his proplret,
Muhanrnred, the calligraphi' in.rvhich it u'as vvritten has deep religious
significance: it is the rneans b)'rvhich Cod's n'ord i.s rnade nranit'est. Fur-
therrnore, Islarn does not allon' pictorirl represetltation of God or
Muhanrnred but relies on calligraphic preserttatiotts of the nanre oi God,
r\llalr, and the Prophet, Muharnnred. Thus, calligraphl' and the Arabic
script are inextricably associated u'itlr Islarn, and all matters affecting
them are judged by believers frorr a religious viel'point.
ir therefore is not surprising that most Arabic experts rllro tvere shorm
Gill's drau,ings disliked them. On October 30, 1932 Moustapha Ghozlan
Ber. the private calligrapher to the king of Eg'pt, rtrote,'Had I to correct
the specimen drafted by Mr. Gill, I would have to write it again altogeth-
er. . . .
'
Another letter reads,
"l
asked my Arabic calligraphist for a criti-
cism & he said the divisions are not ahrays in tlte correct places and the
letters haven't got the correct form, he says it shos's a lack of knorrledge
of the language and its script'"
Continuert on pagc 126
6rqor.y Gnuifs is grnphic striccs matngt.[or Crcalivc lVondrn, nn tducalionnl softwn
pultlishrr nwl dilisirn ol 7'ltr bnning Ctunpan.y' in Rcdmntl Ci4', CA.
Adir!.'n1qr
9
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q-,O'-r0'.r_fr.a'6
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,1. Rough pencil dram:.3s of Gill's
Arabic typeface revea. :ow he be;ar. to
get a feel for the unfa:-:ilar lette;
shapes Courtesy of t:.e Willran
Andrews Clark Libra:.' of UCLL
5. As Gill refrned the ::oeface. h:
extendeci the tails of s.ne itte:s a:d
shortened the desceriere on oti::s.
Courtesy of St. Bride ?rinting Li::a:y,
London.
7
in<jivrdual letters. Courtesy of the
William Andrews Clark Library of UCLF.
?. Final drawing of Gill s Arabic
rypeface,
sen: to 5ir Arthur Wauchooe, Brttrsh
High Commissioner in Palesiine in 1937.
Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark
Library of UCLA.
& Detail of Gills Arabic typeface.
Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark
Library of UCLA.
il?d
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6. Glllcarefully drew h:s Anbic al::abet
on a sheet in pen and tnk. then cu: c:t
PRINTIll
'I
ot
generation of artists, writers, musi-
cians, and intellectuals. For such
scholars,
"renaissance"
is a word
defined by white culture only when
it chooses to take notice of black
influences that have existed all
along. Today, one can still sense the
evolution of the architects of the
Renaissance. The collective of
skilled visual artists left an abundant
body of work for the contempory
community to draw upon-a vast
visual language created at a time in
popular black culture when younger
artists were truh'steeped in the spir-
it and passion of the mornent.
Auilrcri Notc: Tfu
following
pcoplc
or institutions loaned or assislcd n,illt
reprcduclion of art
for
this arliclc.
Thanlu to !fu Archic Giycns Scnior Col-
lection oJ Afican Anrrican Literaturt
a! thc Univcrsih' of Minnaota. Min-
ncapolis; Schouburg Cenlcr.[or Blnck
Rcscarch, Tltc Nar York Pnliir Liltrary',
Ncrl York Cit1,: Paul Coalcs and tltr
Black Clnssic Prcss; Arl lilslitul( oJ
Chicago, lmaging and Rcproducliorrs
divisions; Thonas l4lirlh and lhc cstatt
of Nchard Brurc Nugcnt. Atlditional
lhanks nn dnc lo tht: E. Sinns Camp.
ltcll Collection. Boston Universitl' Li-
ltrary; Tuliza l:luning. Univcrsitl' oJ
Maryland: and A'klin Bwillcs, Tltc
Walker Collcction.
GiII Saails
Continuedfron pngc 111
These critics uere so closel'r'con-
nected to the calligraphic tradition
that they closed their minds to the
requirements of designing a gpe-
face. Referring ro Gill's dral'ing,
Moustapha Ghozlan Bey u'rote of
"a
new type of u'riting" ignoring any
distinction betrleen writing and
type. Given the need for the large
number of letter.s in Arabic, Gill
took liberties rr'itlr his design in an
effort to compensate for the limita-
tions of t)?ecasting. As he wrote,
Arabic "makes a different point of
view necessan,," but there was little
u,illingness by Arabs to adopt one.
Another reason this face was
126PRINT
never cut rvas the maelstrom of
events in Palestine. With the Balfour
;
Declaration in 1917, the British cre-
,
ated a dangerously contradictorl,
I
situation. The declaration effective.
i
ly gave
Jews
the right to establish a
homeland in the region, even as if
I
proclaimed the need not to preju-
, dice the rights of resident Arabs.
: Furthermore, a deep division exist-
: ed berween the British officials in
Palestine and politicians in London.
Whereas the politicians were moti-
vated by larger empirical interesls,
, British officials in Palestine daily
faced realities of the situation and
rvere often more sympathetic.
Sir Arthur Wauchope epitomized
,
the conciliatory nature of the British
officials in Palestine. ln Palcstint
Unfur lhc Mandntr, Albert Hyamson
tvrote of Wauchope that
"his
great
desire r^,as to grant eveDone's re
quest or to let him think that he in.
tended to do so. . . . In the end he
pleased and satisfied no one." In
fact, it is like\ that \{auchope com-
missioned the Arabic typeface sim-
p\, to shou'fairness and impartiali-
h,. While the
Jeu,s
had brouglrt to
Palestine their or.r,n steoographers,
q,pesetters, and printers, the Arabs
tr'ere less rlell-equipped. \4huchope
appeared to address this disparin'
b1, commissioning Gill's Arabic face,
but he could not be relied upon to
implement it.
In spring 1938, Wauchope left
office and a nerl High Commission-
er rvas named. Although tensions re-
mained high among all parties in
Palestine, the British had to concen-
I trate on the lvorsening situation in
Europe and could no longer pursue
cultural efforts such as this gpe de-
sign. Gill had long since received the
fee for his u'ork and used ir to bu)'
boat tickets home in 1937. Although
intercst in an Arabic typeface had
dissipated, he continued to cor'
respond r|ith those involved u'ith his
design untilApril 1938. He never did
ani'further work on it, horvever, and
bv October 1940 he rvas in the la.st
stage of lung cancer. \^Iith German
bombs falling near his home, Gill
died on November 17, 1940. In his
studio he left a typerlriter converted
to Arabic.
Autlnr\ Notc: Much of the rcscarch
for
lhis articlc-ittcluding thc reJer'
cnces to Eric Gill\ letttrs, diarics, and
thc conncnts by contcmporaries on
his Arabic tlpe-\'as donc at the
Wllian Anrlreu,s Clark Liltrary, an
of-canpus rnrc book liltrarl bslsnging
to the Univcrsitl,of California, Los An-
gelx. Thc othcr intportan! reference
natcrials u,crc Fiona .\[acCarthys bi-
ography, Eric Gill: .{ Lover's
Quest
for Art and God (1989), and Gills
Autobiography (J9Jd),
Arabic Typograpby
ConlinucdJron pagc il5
have skills in calligraphl,or at least
in drau,ing letterforms. Hence
toda1,'s absence of an alternative
basis that could constitute
'The
Neu' Arabic Typographi," is a verl'
serious problem.
To hclp rcsolvc thc problcns.facing
Arabic scrip!, Kltourt has developcd n
protolyn
for
a nat' printing alpltabct
tha! rvill bc introdttcui in hisforthcont-
ing book, Tlre Ultimate Script. /ts
chaplcrs, such as thosc on Arabic print-
ing hislory nnd dlclopntcnt. r'arious
languages in a conpara!ivc tlcsigrt
a n al1's i 5, o, 4 r r, ri ci s n; of con lc ntporn r
1'
typography. all rcvolvL around Khour.y's
ccntral call t0 sclarati calligraphic at-
t rib utcs
fro
nt A rab ic tt p efaces.
Thc prototl'pc, Khourt aplaincd. is
bascd on tlrc princililc qf disconncctcd
murc-casc lilterfornts. aild acts
(rs
a
gui dcl i n c
fo
r sh apu an d propo rti o n s
for
futurefont
dcsigrc. In thc books shot'-
case chapter, 55 difcrcnt sanples oJ
$,pcfaccs
arc prcsottcd and applied to a
walth aJ dcsign and 6 pographic rvorks,
opening net' approadt$ and design
motlcls in Arabic rathcr than con-
fronling
ilrc obstacles lhat
facc
Arobic
tl igi lizal i o n a n d progra m m i u g.
The Ultimate Scripr is schedulcd to
fu publislrcd in Ettglish and Arobic ncxl
lcnt
the Accideatd Art Direetor
Continued-from pagc 49
ouners of Barneys, thei'are of inter-
est to readers of service pieces, and
the department storei decline into
bankuptn' and an attempted sale
to a
Japanese
company was a quin-
tessential )ieu'York story about the
changing city. Neu,man stacked
type of decreasing size, as in a
tabloid body type layout, alongside
a photograph in which the brothers
seem to parodl'a couple of old-style
neighborhood haberdashers.
'l
ve
alrvays pushed for letting images
stand alone, as big as possible, with-
out puttins h'pe on them," Nervman
savs.
'Too
many art directors crop
too tighth'and put too much gpe
on."
After almost a year al Details,
Ner.r'man might seem read),to move
on. And he is moving on: to a ner.r'ac-
cent at the same magazine. He is
making a slow turn from the
"cool
jazz" influence to that of handlet-
tered morie posters from the 1960s,
as seen in a recent feature called
"\Vomen
on Top" and the
'Mondo
Hollyrvood" issue, both designed by
lohn Giordani.
"These
old movie stills are great,
if you crop them in an interesting
rr'a1,," he savs.
'And
they're free-
uhich is sreat for us. This isn't Dller-
toinnutt lli^c/li.1r "
He sounds not so
much like an art director \\'ith an eye
on the bud-qet as an old political
Protester Putting
one over on the
polrers that be. Which is hor{ he
likes to see himseli and his rlork, no
matter rlhat the magazine.
LogoRhythms
Continucd_tron pagc 39
themselves. he drarvs on the semi'
otic theorr of Charles Morris and
Charles Sanders Peirce. Mollerups
abiliq'ro fit so much source materi'
al into his schematic construct en-
ables him to incorporate a vast
number of iogos and marks into a
schema illustrating his theorv.
I find iittle to quarrel u'ith in the