Key takeaways
- 'Small Print' opens at Marta Los Angeles on 7 November and runs until 19 December 2026.
- The second iteration features 258 miniature books, more than double the 100 in the 2019-era debut at London's Tenderbooks.
- The smallest book is Josua Reichert's 'Das Kleinste Buch der Welt' at 2.4 × 2.9 mm, legible only with a magnifying glass.
- New additions include 36 books published in the 1960s for Japanese whisky producer Suntory.
A book measuring 2.4 × 2.9 mm — smaller than a grain of rice — is the smallest of 258 miniature books going on show in Los Angeles this week. Veronica Ditting's exhibition 'Small Print' opens at Marta gallery on Saturday 7 November and runs until 19 December 2026.
The show is the second iteration of a collection that debuted just over a year ago at London bookshop Tenderbooks. The first version held 100 miniature books from Ditting's personal archive. The new one has more than doubled, with 158 additional titles.
What's new in the collection?
Fresh additions include Yoshū Mame Tengoku — translated as Foreign Liquor Heaven or Western Liquor Heaven — a series of 36 books published in the 1960s for Japanese whisky producer Suntory. They cover subjects from gardening and glassware to erotica, and the publisher spared no expense on design or printing.
The tiniest book in the show has also changed hands. A 5 × 5 mm leather-bound edition of the Lord's Prayer previously held the record. German artist Josua Reichert's Das Kleinste Buch der Welt has now taken the title, printed with a specialist technique and legible only through a magnifying glass.
Other highlights on view:
- A rare miniature Webster dictionary in a custom Tiffany & Co sterling silver case bearing the brand's hallmark
- Conceptual art books by Dieter Roth
- Robert Filliou's playful concertina Filliou Standard-Book (c. 1970–75)
- A selection of original 'Hanuman Books', the pocket-sized series founded by Francesco Clemente and Raymond Foye
Why move from a bookshop to a gallery?
The shift from an intimate bookshop to a design gallery gives the collection a new context. Ditting hopes Marta's design-savvy audience will take away fresh perspectives on bookmaking and the possibilities of printed matter.
An accompanying audio tour lets visitors dial a dedicated number on their mobile phones to hear the stories behind selected books. Narrators also share their own relationships with print. They include Fernando Augusto Pacheco, senior correspondent at Monocle Radio and host of its weekly print-media show The Stack; Ditting's studio colleagues Harry McArthur and Laura Russell; and Ditting herself.
Where did the obsession start?
Ditting's fascination began during her childhood in Germany, with the pocket-sized dictionaries her parents took on holiday. She credits those practical, now nearly obsolete objects with shaping her interest in scale and tactility.
'These 'one-hand', miniature or thumb books are intimate objects that force us to pay attention to the tiniest of details: the bend of a page; the width of a line; the heft of a spine,' Ditting said. 'They tell us the printed object is defined by tactility and technicalities. With eccentric proportions, these miniature books revive why we read.'
Ditting's eponymous studio designs campaigns, branding, magazines and exhibitions for clients including Hermès, The Row, Louis Vuitton, Pirelli, Somerset House and Het Nieuwe Instituut. That client list explains the show's appeal to a design crowd: these are books treated as objects first, texts second.
For a city better known for architectural scale than miniature precision, 'Small Print' makes its case in millimetres.
Original: google.com
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Senior reporter covering money, funding and market shifts around construction industry, architecture, interior design at Built Current.
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