the first twenty ordinal numbers

The (English) names of all ordinal numbers (first, second, third…) begin with only five different letters. This piece illustrates the relationship between those letters as an abstraction (reduction) of letterforms. The abstracted letterforms come from the roman alphabet apices / bases graph.

Interestingly, the names of all cardinal numbers begin with the same set of letter shapes, just in a different order.

Representative colors for the letters are also presented as an icosohedral net.

There are two versions, made with slightly different materials. Both measure 12″ x 24″.