Several images make functional or even decorative use of the shape of numbers in the composition.

We are used to it in Dada and Cubist paintings; it is also a feature of reportage drawing and cartoon work.

01 Reginald Cleaver's drawing of a beach scene at Ostende, involving mispronunciation of Kursaale; Punch September 10th 1898 p.112, 11 x 13cms.

02 from Dore's Holy Russia, somebody swallowing a whole year.

03 from Harold Jones' Lavender's Blue . Oxford Univ.Press 1954, a compilation of Nursery Rhymes by Kathleen Lines.

04 Dorathea Dana, The Runaway Shuttle Train , McKay, Philadelphia, 1946, a neat solution, where the trains are visualised in letter and number form. Altogether, a delightful and original book.
 
05 Illustration to The Boy and the Magic , Dennis Dobson, London 1964, based on an opera by Maurice Ravel, after the story by Colette. A vile child, unpleasant to all, awakes the grisly spirit of uncontrolled mathematics.  

06 a head full of figures a drawing by Dyke White for The Passing Show , June 1921

07 Frans Masereel's image of a prisoner, c1925 Cover design for The Baron of Industry by Upton Sinclair, Malik Verlag, Berlin 1925 18 x 12cms.

08 the front of the Souvenir Brochure for the Paris Exposition of 1937 (Arts et metiers); and a fine example of ART DECO shaping of number and text.