Alfredo Armas Alfonzo wrote the introduction to Imposibilia, the book by the Venezuelan designers Gerd Leufert and Nedo Mion Ferrario. In his essay, Armas Alfonzo discusses the impossible worlds suggested by writers, such as Franz Kafka, and artists, such as M. C. Escher, who presented implausible spaces with no regard for logic or mathematics. Armas Alfonzo also mentions how the truth in Saint Augustine’s Confessions, and Bodoni’s and Garamond’s typography, among other things, no longer make sense when impossibility and possibility are both involved. The same thing happens with perceptual abstraction, as outlined in the book jointly created by Leufert and Nedo.   

In the introductory essay he wrote for Imposibilia—the book jointly created by the Venezuelan designers Gerd Leufert (who was originally from Lithuania, 1914–98) and Nedo Mion Ferrario (originally from Italy, 1926–2001)—Alfredo Armas Alfonzo (1921–90) discusses their work from a literary, philosophical, and artistic perspective. This strategy allows the essayist and the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the graphic study conducted by these two designers for their book. Armas Alfonzo explains that they are seeking an “impossible figuration” that is not directly associated with magical realism, thus distancing their work from a purely retinal effect. The essayist provides a general overview of perceptual abstraction (a way to approach Imposibilia), and cites curiosity, uncertainty, and anxiety as elements that address the material presented in the book. Published by the Universidad de Oriente, and including silkscreen prints by Tamigraf, the book is a graphic reflection on impossible images that inhabit imaginary spaces. At the time it was published, Armas Alfonzo was the director of the Cultural Extension at the Universidad de Oriente, which printed his introductory essay in a brochure.

[For additional information about Gerd Leufert’s work, see in the ICAA digital archive the article by Alfredo Chacón “‘Visibilia’ en el punto neutro de la figuración” (doc. no. 1160567); the essay by Miguel Arroyo “Sin Arco” (doc. no. 1163621); and the essay by Lourdes Blanco “Los carteles de Gerd Leufert: enero-febrero 1991” (doc. no. 1155909)].