The dictum “less is more” is usually attributed to the German architect Mies van der Rohe. It is a saying easy to mock. There are many circumstances, however, for which we are tempted to regard it as Algernon (in The Importance of Being Earnest) regarded one of his own mots: “It is perfectly phrased! and quite as true as any observation in civilized life should be.” When it comes to cultural life, at any rate, we believe that Mies’s stern observation is far preferable to Robert Venturi’s smirking riposte, “Less is a bore.” For one thing, Venturi’s rejoinder—or rather the spirit it heralded—turned out to be a license for cultural pollution, A.K.A. postmodernism. For another thing, if there are plenty of circumstances in which “less is more” is inapplicable or just plain wrong, there are also many circumstances in which mere proliferation is a disaster. Less isn’t always m ...

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