Architecture Commons^™

Points Of View: Herbert Bayer's Exhibition Catalogue For The 1930 Section Allemande, Wallis Miller

Architecture Faculty Publications

Sigfried Giedion called Herbert Bayer’s exhibition catalogue for the 1930 Section Allemande a “minor typographical masterpiece.” Like similar catalogues, it is inexpensive, provides an inventory list, has an introduction, functions as a guide, and is illustrated. However, the majority of its images are of installations, not their contents. Bayer accommodates the catalogue type for applied arts exhibitions by listing installations as objects, but he confronts the type by showing installations as display contexts that establish points of view, emulating, idealizing and interpreting the experience of the exhibition. By independently constructing ways of seeing and understanding the exhibition, the catalogue resists …