THE POET’S HAND: CALLIGRAPHY & ASEMIC WRITING
Many instances of work in visual poetry are calligraphic, using the poet’s handwriting and the layout of the page to create patterns and spatial poem-drawings. This practice is closely aligned with asemic writing, or the development and use of non-semantic scripts. Asemic writing often appears to be a language script at first glance, but the letterforms instead follow different influences and procedural rules to create the impression of language. In the introduction to An Anthology of Asemic Handwriting (Punctum Books, 2013), Tim Gaze and Michael Jacobson describe asemic writing as the “peak of a snowy mountain,” an “international mountain where there are no borders, fences, or walls” (7). In this way, asemic writing relates to non-alphabetic languages, codes, signals, and other forms of imaginative meaning.
B.[ritton] Wilke.
Mirrors of Time.
Nova News, 1971.
Wilkie was known for highly detailed and technical drawings, often with militaristic, religious, and dystopian themes. He often contributed covers to little magazines within poetry communities such as those at St. Mark’s Poetry Project in New York City.
[George Quasha and Susan Quasha, eds.].
Lost Paper, no. 1.
Station Hill, 1979.
Displayed are works by Franz Kamin and Charles Stein.
The premise of this publication was to create experimental and non-categorical text with the unused portions of press sheets at the Open Studio Print Shop in Rhinebeck, New York. Contributors include Franz Kamin, Robert Kelly, Patricia Nedds, George Quasha, Susan Quasha, and Charles Stein.
![aspen[1].jpg](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15145/archive/thumbnails/1d203f47a9dd6c2384fd4557821bb43a.jpg?Expires=1747872000&Signature=CS8%7EiPWZAwqQ5N3%7ED37DmpXh5IfqR85E3vYn-wpCAefEdPurMHCNDA3jOkym6hsClXewCA%7E2lFmCuxzwGu1UG1dnhklzG24ef6qEG6g4QmL%7EpMfCjiR3SJQ8aLL4DGU7PNp7R83THRpXK7Myh6bNVskmTtPVl4qUTD0N1l6JQvuyQdPqmEQHrOMYdQ409XFXsIKZvNkXq8x%7EepZ1B877UnTrzxLc6b3KpdNBrrAtk8qOtnHtsiTJLWB2Cb2UjNTeWmXmHaxXmOhFrTpdR1LmDGQVnYy7so8LvIqSHltwC02y67MFEhRt7clNGEUGz8MRDFt01Wwh8o2tnoYfbSHl9A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM "aspen[1].jpg")
Angus MacLise and Hetty MacLise, guest eds.
Aspen, no. 9.
Roaring Fork Press, 1971.
Phyllis Johnson was the editor and publisher of Aspen, though this “Psychedelic Issue” was guest edited by Angus and Hetty MacLise. Contributors include John Cale, Harvey Cohen, Ira Cohen and Bill Devore, Benno Friedman, Nikki Grand, Paolo Lionni, Angus and Hetty MacLise with La Monte Young, Gerard Malanga, Terry Riley, Diane Rochlin, Aymon de Sales, Don Snyder, Dale Wilbourn, Marian Zazeela, and Lionel Ziprin.
![aspen[2].jpg](https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15145/archive/fullsize/919e9baf457e5d9cd8a13dd35b40603c.jpg?Expires=1747872000&Signature=Kjzenn1FxtPl2aWew8H52JGjmpjigi2qMVNWzfgns1fzH-UHDFt%7ECy%7E8Xx51B6%7E6JhvTzPKa0un1JI9AcCSeuucDg0j8XLm2hGYtHSwRfp%7ELrFfJ%7EnibVhQP%7E%7EJ41VMNjXVnYHsCgwx662TKRm1vuzcBfEPuH3h9tuF-gnzvwxxm5HmUQDwhZ8n9uh1kOB%7E40nqpw1%7EEoqc0Yiv0yDHekNuhEnMGgfsSqwwnhc6cpJUvi06H3ZnYeUXhs7qa8lcx13S1TU8mJj5TPF8b9NtA95eqIRTT691aV2wby3ARnkz3RIDn0q1akg8D6F0cYHFvTjMIAWxre2okIHu6%7E%7EQEOw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM "aspen[2].jpg")
Angus MacLise and Hetty MacLise, guest eds.
Aspen, no. 9.
Roaring Fork Press, 1971.
Displayed is work by Marian Zazeela, including her artist’s statement.
Zazeela was an artist, musician, and calligrapher, among other practices, known for her work with the Theatre of Eternal Music and her collaborations with La Monte Young. Her work often explores the intersection between artistic, decorative, and minimalist practices.
bill bissett.
Lunaria.
Granary Books, 2001.
This book explores bissett’s “home planet,” named Lunaria, and includes sights and experiences from “les moon rayze” to “happeeness in ths short life” that are woven into expressive drawings and explorations of language. Letterpress page spread printed by Inge Bruggemann, then hand-painted by bill bissett. The book was bound by Judith Ivry and is housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box. The edition includes a CD of the poet reading the poem.
Gregory Corso.
The Geometric Poem.
East 128 Milano 12, 1966.
Printed and published in the poet’s holograph by Ettore Sottsass and Fernanda Pivano, this work celebrates ancient Egypt with text, glyphs, and drawings. Fernanda Pivano was one of the first to translate the Beats into Italian and to celebrate their work in Italy.
Klaus-Peter Dienst and Rolf-Gunther Dienst, eds. Rhinozeros, no. 5.
1961.
Displayed is work by Allen Ginsberg.
Rhinozeros was edited by brothers Klaus-Peter and Rolf-Gunther Dienst in Hamburg and Berlin, where they produced ten issues from 1960–1965. Klaus-Peter Dienst was the inventive and skilled calligrapher, designer, and typographer who hand-detailed the contents of each issue. This issue focuses on “Beat” poets and is notably the only issue printed in color.
Klaus-Peter Dienst and Rolf-Gunther Dienst, eds.
Rhinozeros, no. 7.
1962.
Displayed is work by Arno Reinfrank, translated by Robert Creeley.
Contributors include William S. Burroughs, Jean Cocteau, Robert Creeley, Klaus-Peter Dienst, Rolf-Gunther Dienst, Lawrence Durrell, Günther Grass, Katja Hajek, Raoul Hausmann, Eva van Hoboken, Anselm Hollo, Dieter Hüsmanns, Hermann Jandl, Jürgen Ploog, Arno Reinfrank, Klaus Roehler, Reuwen Wassereman, Dieter Wellershoff, and Carl Werner.
Lois Elaine Griffith.
You See What You See.
Granary Books, 2025.
Lois Elaine Griffith is a founding member of the Nuyorican Poets Café, and her multifaceted work explores Afro-Caribbean and diasporic themes. This publication draws from her 2007, 2012, and 2013 journals. Of the works, she states: “My art-practice embraces the Vibe and I run with it to see where it leads. I trust the Vibe gives vision to my eyes. I trust the Vibe leads my hands to translate the vision.” Designed by M.C. Kinniburgh, bound by Judith Ivry, and printed by Jason Walz.
Robert Grenier.
rhymms.
Poltroon Press, N.d.
Printed, green paper-covered clamshell box containing 11 leaves: eight printed in color, two blank, and one in the poet’s hand that reads “Dec 20 2014.” Grenier’s work plays with the question of illegibility. In Robert Grenier’s What I Believe/ Transpiration/ Transpiring, Minnesota (O Books, 1991), Leslie Scalapino notes that “Grenier’s poems are drawings which are ‘drawn’ as if from the other side of the paper.”
Timothy C. Ely.
[Untitled. “TDTK”].
[1985].
Ely is a renowned visual artist and bookbinder whose primary practice comprises unique book-works. He is known for “cribriform,” a mode of asemic writing that he developed, as well as works informed by sacred geometry and other esoteric forms. In his own words, he describes his work as “visionary drawings of an unknowable future.” This drawing uses pen, ink, graphite, watercolor, and more.
Dieter Schwartz, ed.
Sondern, no. 4.
Seedorn Verlag, 1979.
Displayed is work by Dorothy Iannone.
Iannone’s work often explored erotic and ecstatic themes and frequently was censored in print and during exhibition. This spread depicts work from her autobiographical project, begun in the late 1960s. The cover of the magazine is by Emmett Williams, who edited the first American anthology of concrete poetry. Contributors include Jan Voss, Konrad Bayer, Dieter Roth, Helmut Heissenbüttel, Hugo Suter, Robert Filliou, Magnús Pálsson, Emmett Williams, Attersee, and Edward Ruscha, among others.
Susan Bee [Susan B. Laufer].
Not.
Asylum’s Press, 1980.
Susan Bee is a book artist, painter, and editor known for psychedelic and surreal works that engage childhood, nature, Americana, and religion. A longtime collaborator with Granary Books, Bee has published artists’ books with poets including Jerome Rothenberg, Charles Bernstein, and Johanna Drucker, and is co-editor, along with Mira Schor, of M/E/A/N/I/N/G. Not, displayed here, combines the flow of Bee’s hand with angular geometric structures, such as type and triangles, as seen on the cover.
Kenneth Patchen.
“The peacock when placed.”
N.p., 1955.
Patchen was a key influence on the Beats and the San Francisco Renaissance, known for his evocative poem-drawings, collaborations with musicians including John Cage and Charles Mingus, and pacifist political leanings. In 1955, a series of his works were silkscreened by Frank Bucher, and over the course of his lifetime he produced hundreds of painted books in this style of work.