Ellery/Brown
136 Points of Reference

September 7 - September 17, 2005


Andrew Roth is pleased to host the New York launch of 136 Points of Reference, a new book by Jonathan Ellery.

Based in London, Jonathan Ellery and his studio, Browns, have forged an enviable reputation in both design and publishing; a book and exhibition, 136 Points of Reference examines the influences that have informed and defined their graphic work. Reproduced are images and objects that have been culled from Ellery’s or his colleague’s idiosyncratic collections. These range from rare art and photography books to assorted ephemera. Contributors to the book include the American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner, Berlin-based graphic design professor Erik Spiekermann, and from London, photographer Martin Parr and graphic designer Alan Fletcher. Design consultant and author Adrian Shaughnessy has written the foreword.

136 Points of Reference is a cacophony of cross-cultural inspiration. Items illustrated include Nick Knight’s classic ’80s book Skinhead, Thames and Hudson’s understated Gustave Klimt Erotic Drawings (1980), Don Judd’s 1971 catalogue from the landmark Pasadena Art Museum exhibition curated by John Coplans, and the master typographer Sagmeister’s Made You Look (2001); London postal tags; Iraqi Most Wanted playing cards; an Empire State Building entrance ticket; Comme des Garçon’s fragrance packaging; and a Tokyo subway map. Lawrence Weiner produces Watts Towers, a limited-edition poster that is laid into the book; Spiekermann, Parr, and Fletcher each offer a sampling from their personal collections, targeting key items of influence.

Since 1999, Ellery/Browns has designed and published various books including Susan Meiselas’s Pandora’s Box (2001) from Magnum Editions and Paul Davis’s limited-edition Blame Everyone Else published by Browns in 2003.

“It is the hallmark of the genuinely talented that they can reveal their reference points and not be diminished by this act of revelation.” — A. Shaughnessy