“In Lehrer’s books… words take on thought’s very form, bringing sensory experience to the reader as directly as ink on paper can allow… [Once] considered too far ahead of his time… Now the times are beginning to catch up to him.”
The New York Times Book Review Julie Lasky
“Hail, Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer, for making a new art worthy of the new America that is quietly and not so quietly being born again out of the lives and imaginations of its newest immigrants. They combine the art of storytelling, the book, the visual, and the sound of voices, to create a true Whitmanesque vista of our infant century. ” Andrei Codrescu, poet, novelist, journalist, public radio commentator
“In Warren Lehrer’s extraordinary books, full of typographic innovation, he seeks to trap thought, sound and speech in time and space on the printed page. The result is theater… The reader (viewer/listener) experiences the pathos within the mundane aspects of everyday life… reality, fantasy, along with art and literature, travel parallel but inseparable roads..” Print Magazine Philip Meggs
“[Warren Lehrer is] one of the most imaginative and ambitious book artists of our time.” American Book Review Richard Kostelantetz
“Lehrer pioneered what might be best termed “typographic performance” in his 1984 book/play French Fries, a hot type cacophony of word and image that is today considered by historians one of the lynchpins of the deconstructionist era… Sloan, his wife, is an actor and audio artist/documentarian who has performed on stage and for public radio. Together they have produced this multimedia book which explores the difficult and joyful relationships, intersections and dislocations, between a remarkable group of ethnically diverse immigrants who have settled in various lower middle and middle class neighborhoods in Queens, New York. While [Crossing the BLVD] can be viewed as an astute urban sociological study (Margaret Mead meets Jane Jacobs), more importantly it highlights the richness (as well as a little darkness) of a poly-cultural critical mass representing the sights and sounds, customs and mores of ‘new’ New York. It is eloquent, poignant, and smartly designed… an entirely satisfying piece of design authorship.”
Eye Magazine Steve Heller
“Lehrer creates a rich soundscape in the reader’s imagination, correlating the rhythm of language to the way the mind works… His books explore the rich dissonance of sound and life surrounding each of us… challenging the line between life and art…”Afterimage Nancy Soloman
“Books such as French Fries [1984] challenge readers to explore the act of reading; to break with the usual linear pattern, vary the pace, look back on earlier passages, or skip ahead. Lehrer’s typographic experiments anticipated new directions in 1990s graphic design. With his ‘Portrait Series’ published in 1995… he showed how ‘visual literature’ could be used to engage broader audiences… Lehrer’s books evoke the subjective experience of their subjects with great particularity and vividness, suggesting the possibility of a new literary genre that makes full use of design’s rhetorical dimension.” No More Rules: Postmodern Design Rick Poynor
“Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan are traditional oral historians in practice and radical artists transforming the field through their innovative approach to presentation. Their latest collaborative work is a vibrant and inspiring collection of stories from immigrants… For people who have so often been otherized, stereotyped, and misrepresented, Crossing the BLVD is an excercise in authenticity. Each of the stories—more like lyric poetry than narrative—is accompanied by beautiful portraits of the subjects laid out in an unusual graphic style of Lehrer’s invention… The graphic style and approach to portraiture are revolutionary for the field and the sheer volume and range of the subjects covered, rare. Visionary!” The Oral History Review Courtney Martin
“The navigational complexity of bookspace has rarely been more thoroughly or deliberately designed than in the work of Lehrer…”
Afterimage Johanna Drucker
“Crossing the BLVD is a book, a CD, a website, a photography exhibit, a series of radio programs, and a live reading performance by the project creators, Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan. The book and CD is more evocative and provocative than any instructional video I’ve seen and far less expensive. It serves as a model for what you could do in your community, organization or institution.”
Managing Diversity Magazine Harris Sussman
