In The Language of Things, Deyan Sudjic identified design as “the DNA” of a society, “the code that we need to explore if we are to stand a chance of understanding the nature of the modern world.”
With this spirit of exploration and understanding, Molly and I welcome you to our website. Antiquarian book websites, like the collections of their readers, usually strive for a tentative coherence: books by a single author, books by two authors, books by women, cookbooks, etc. There are as many categories as there are collectors, and nearly as many specialized sites intended to abet them.
The great writer and bibliophile Walter Benjamin expressed a wish to compose an original work entirely of quotations. He also considered the arrangement of the books in his library to be one of his most demanding literary creations. Benjamin asserted the choice and arrangement of the books told a story and promoted a theory of knowledge. And while he never revealed the secrets, he assumed it was possible for some other critic to read the story, to decode the meaning, and to compose philosophical commentaries about it.
Our website cannot claim this kind of coherence, if for no other reason than the arbitrary demands of an alphabetical arrangement necessarily distorts it. Nevertheless, we like to believe that the books offered here make a contribution to the beginning of a story. We offer here various strands of the helix that binds our society.
All items are available for inspection via appointment at our office in Shreveport, LA — The Design Capitol of the Ark-La-Tex. We are secretly open to the public and welcome visitors with prior notification.
We are always interested in purchasing single items, collections and libraries and welcome all inquiries at rross@modernism101.com.
Randall Ross + Molly McCombs