Declaration of Independence

Arguably the most important document to the American people, the Declaration of Independence conveys the the intentions, morals, and goals that have made us the country we are today. If we take a step back, though, and take it for what it truly is, the Declaration of Independence is really just a bunch of letters combined together, separated by spaces of fading hemp. But imagine this document without those yellowed spaces. It would be a series of meaningless, jumbled letters. As Lupton describes, "The French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who devised the theory of deconstruction in the 1960s, wrote that although the alphabet represents sound, it cannot function without silent marks and spaces." Lupton also explains that writing occupies space as well as time, and in the case of the Declaration of Independence, this space has been occupied for centuries, conveying the same powerful message now as its writer once intended. "Tapping that spatial dimension--and thus liberating readers from the bonds of linearity--is among typography's most urgent tasks" (Lupton).