Dead Letters — a new India Street Lettering zine highlighting the unique letterforms on gravestones in historic cemeteries

Old Christian cemeteries around India are an opportunity to see what Latin letterforms looked like in the country historically, beyond the lens of print, letterpress and otherwise.

Dead Letters is a self-published zine that collects a sample of photographs featuring gravestones from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. It is an invitation to explore and study this subject, and in this small publication, one will find lettering in a range of styles: from uncial to blackletter, transitional to Tuscan, all the way to geometric sans. Weathered headstones also reveal the remnants of a specialised craft, lead lettering, as well as archaic typographic conventions, like the use of superior letters in abbreviated names.

The zine is available to purchase via Blaft Publications, and at independent bookshop around India, include Champaca Bookstore’s online store.