Type cast?

Post date: Nov 28, 2013 9:5:25 AM

I have been dipping back into a book Adrian gave me a couple of years ago on the origins of various fonts. It has some fascinating facts in it. There is a font called Mrs Eaves which was created by John Baskerville in the 1700s (already had created the Baskerville font). Mrs eaves was Baskerville's "housekeeper" which was not altogether the conventional relationship of the day. Apparently they were societal outcasts though the typefaces brought them a living.

Anyway come forward several centuries and a young Australian woman called Gemma is captivated by Mrs Eaves - not sure if it is her life story or the font but Gemma calls herself Mrs Eaves who writes over herself in black marker pen and films it posts on You Tube and then has several showers to remove it. She says it is part of a campaign to promote graffiti in areas other than public spaces.