Ghetto (Typeface)
Distributed at the 2003 Venice Bienniale, Ghetto is a family of three fonts featuring Hebrew* and Latin sets. Ghetto's naming convention refers to 16th-century Venice, Italy, home of the world's first legally separate neighborhood for jewish people and its three areas of settlement: Nuovo, Vecchio and Novissimo.
Novissimo, the Latin version, as well as Nuovo and Vecchio, the Jewish "square-script" versions, are based on "block letter" alphabets of hand-painted signage from Echo Park, Los Angeles.
Though its etymology is uncertain, ghetto is likely derived from either borghetto ("little borough") or geto ("foundry") in Venetian dialect which originally described the city's foundry district, an islet that became gated and guarded when "The Council of Ten" decreed that all Jews reside there from 1516 until 1797 when Napoleon emancipated them. Jewish emigres - many from Eastern Europe - mispronounced geto with a guttural rather than soft "g". It wasn't until World War II that the term ghetto entered the American lexicon. Today, the 'ghetto' is both a lived reality and a media fantasy. Technology, entertainment and news have expanded the 'ghetto' into a global concept. While Los Angles barrio calligraphy is based on "Old English" lettering, kids in Nottingham, England have mastered American ghetto slang as if they grew up in East LA.
*Hebrew cantillation marks, used mainly in sacred texts and children's lessons, are not included.