In these 2 pages, the personified 19th and 20th centuries, represented by the distinct typography, debate their relative merits.

There is an idea from opera, the Gesamtkunstwerk, of an art form that is a synthesis of all other art forms. Opera was meant to be it though these days perhaps video games are the Gesamtkunstwerk.

A book seems almost the antithesis of that. Yet because of the medium’s relative minimalism, deconstructing and remixing the format of the medium, like Rian Hughes’ XX does here, ends up being more exciting sometimes.