45 PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS
More Than Words inspires immediate snail mail envy. After flipping through page after page of illustrated letters—sent by luminary artists ranging from Andrew Wyeth to Andy Warhol—you’ll long for your own creative genius pen pal. “We all love to get a hand-addressed envelope,” says Deb Wood, design director at Princeton Architectural Press. “There’s a lot of life in them. It’s so much better than an e-mail.”

To honor this rare quality, Wood gave each creation room to breathe on its own spread. Theses letters, drawn from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, are paired with minimal explanatory text. It’s just enough copy to add context after you pore over the letter itself. And it’s while trying to decipher some of the scrawled handwriting that you’ll discover one of Wood’s best design decisions. She worked with the editorial team to have all the letters transcribed, and this text is set on uncoated stock at the end of the book. It’s a move that ensures that every letter can be admired and understood. After all, don’t you want to know exactly what that Alexander Calder note says? by Michelle Taute