Starting in 1998 with a rough cityplan Paul Noble (UK) is working ever since on an imaginary city called Nobson Newton. The huge pencil drawings, sculptures and videos were on show in Boijmans van Beuningen, a unique opportunity to see the complete ‘city’.
Every work Paul Noble makes, is part of a bigger idea, but a book that shows ‘everything’ was never made, until now. But still this overview about Nobson Newton is not so much a catalogue as a guide to this cosmopolis...
Close to the subwaystations that can be found in the drawings of Nobson, one can find the text by Michael Shanks ‘In Parenthesis’. printed on yellow pages these texts add an extra layer in the book.
With this ‘guide’ in our hands we start the walk at the QUARY A-Z, then along NOBPARK were we find the TENT, through NOBSON CENTRAL in Wasteland and then towards MALL, NOBSPITAL and so on ...
Nobson is based on a typeface called Nobfont. The font is silkscreened on the plastic cover wich you can expand so that you can unravel the words that the drawings are based upon.
On the green pages you encounter at four places in the book you will find the map inlcuding a line of the tour in the book, next to the numbers and titles of the work.
All works as presented in such a way that you can look around as you would do in a city, you’re looking close at details, walk by things, see other things in the distance ...
Paul Kempers wrote a text that is also based on the idea of a walk.
Since NOBFONT reminds of Modernistic architecture of the 20th century, the modernistic typeface Helvetica was chosen for the typography of the book.
The idea of ​​the travel guide is physically emphasized in a very subtile way by the size of it (not to big) the thin paper, flexible binding, green maps, plastic dust cover, etc.
Also the typography on the side of the pages remind a little bit of a tour guide.
Drawings and sculptures are mixed in order to emphazise that all Noble’s works thogether form one world/city called Nobson.
N is for NOBSON ofcourse!