THREADS OF EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE
There is no singular definition of, or starting point for, visual poetry—nor of its “co-conspirators”: concrete poetry, sound poetry, experimental poetry, and other monikers. However, the multifaceted practices of different creators show us several ways that we might start to contemplate some of visual poetry’s defining characteristics. From Cecilia Vicuña’s quipus to Emily McVarish’s letterpress layouts, Anne Kingsbury’s multicolored calligraphy to d.a. levy’s offset newsprints, this first gallery (to borrow from Jerome Rothenberg’s use of the organizing term) gestures towards some of the poets whose works and ideologies have shaped this experimental field. Among their techniques, we encounter a multitude of ways in which the visual qualities of words—or even more simply, a letter—can take us deeper into realms of meaning and storytelling.
Anne Kingsbury.
Journal Entries 1977-1984: A Life Through Lists.
Chax Press, 1986.
Kingsbury’s book was published by the legendary Tucson-based Chax Press, the imprint of poet and printer Charles Alexander. The book alternates between typeset prose that is recognizable to readers and vibrant journaling that dominates the page with words assembling an array of shapes, structures, and images. On these pages, the words lose their clarity of meaning and instead embody the frenzy and exuberance of daily life.
Cecilia Vicuña.
Chanccani Quipu.
Granary Books, 2012.
Vicuña writes: “Chanccani Quipu reinvents the concept of ‘quipu,’ the ancient system of ‘writing’ with knots, transforming it into a metaphor in space; a book/sculpture that condenses the clash of two cultures and worldviews: the Andean oral universe and the Western world of print.” Each quipu was produced entirely by hand, printed on unspun wool using stencils, and knotted by the poet. Box by Susan Mills, and printing by Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints.
d.a. levy.
The Tibetan Stroboscope.
Ayizan Press, 1968.
d.a. levy has said that The Tibetan Stroboscope is "an experiment in Destructive Writing ‘other’ communications and ‘concrete’ prose piece | peace & awareness." The work was published on newsprint, with a high print run of 5000 copies that suggests it was originally intended to be readily distributed. Its form evokes and subverts forms of mass media, even as its subject matter resists any form of straightforward reading.
Emily McVarish.
Both Hopes.
N.p., 1993.
This broadside was produced for McVarish’s first solo show at de Vera Gallery in San Francisco in 1993, and was produced within the broader theme of printing and working with dreams. The images and the text are all “found”; the text is derived from a cut-up method, and the images were chosen from a collection of printer’s cuts that were on hand. In doing so, McVarish told Granary Books that she was seeking the “effects of overdetermination, obfuscation, oscillation and slippage.”
Ian Hamilton Finlay, ed.
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse., no. 19.
[1966].
Displayed is “Io and the ox-eye daisy” by Ronald Johnson, with design by John Furnival.
John Furnival’s design work aligns the round appearance of the human eye and the center (or “eye”) of the ox-eye daisy, overlapping layers of meaning within “I” and the significance of “IO” as a sound and symbol. Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. was an international little magazine edited by Finlay and published by Wild Hawthorne Press from 1962–1967, in 25 issues.
Jess.
O!
Hawk’s Well Press, 1960.
Jess Collins, or simply Jess, was known for elaborate and complex collages that he termed “paste-ups,” whose sources included books, posters, magazines, illustrations, and other common ephemera. Often, themes within his work included alchemy, occultism, masculinity, and surrealism. His collage contemporaries included Wallace Berman, George Herms, and Helen Adam, whose works explored similar visual motifs and techniques.
Johanna Drucker.
Stochastic Poetics.
Granary Books and Druckwerk, 2012.
Stochastic systems, including weather and waves, are non-linear and adaptive. Using this concept, Drucker composed this book at the type case, modifying within the composing stick. Each sheet went through the press numerous times over the two-year period it took to create this book, and no two copies are alike. Of the work, Drucker writes: “Stochastic Poetics has a single question at its core: How does the figure of poetic language emerge from the general field of language?”
Jonathan Williams.
“A Discrete Sign on the Steinway.”
The Hermetic Press, 1986.
Published as part of a portfolio titled Five Visual Poems, each designed and printed by Philip Gallo. This work was also one of Granary Books’ first publications, distributed separately from Gallo’s portfolio. That same year, Granary Books (as Origin Books) published another Williams’ work, “Noah Webster to Wee Lorine Niedecker,” and later, Aposiopeses in 1988. When Granary Books moved to New York City in the late 1980s, its gallery space exhibited works by The Jargon Society.
Mieko Shiomi.
Spatial Poem.
Mieko Shiomi, 1976.
In 1965, Japanese Fluxus artist Mieko Shiomi began to work with a mailing list provided by fellow Fluxus artist George Maciunas, assigning recipients a language-based prompt for a poetic event, or “action poem.” Shiomi collected responses, via mail, from participants including Maciunas, Alison Knowles, Akira Sakaguchi, Brion Gysin, John Cage, Carolee Schneemann, and Nam June Paik, among many others. Spatial Poem presents this intricate network of avant-garde poetics, preserving the ephemeral “action poems” that resulted.
Nicholas Zurbrugg, ed.
Stereo Headphones: An Occasional Magazine of the New Poetries, [vol.1], no. 5.
Winter 1972.
Zurbrugg was based in Suffolk, England, and later Brisbane, Australia. This was a special issue on “the new visual and photo poetries of Japan,” with poems and statements from Seiichi Niikuni and Kitasono Katué, who were part of ASA magazine and the VOU group.
Philip Gallo.
“Bar Napkin Doodle Poem.”
The Hermetic Press, 1988.
Included in Not Quite Semiotiks: Poems 1987–1988, a collection of Gallo’s poetry issued by his imprint, The Hermetic Press.
Raymond Queneau.
One Hundred Million Million Poems.
Kickshaws, 1983.
This book is a seminal work associated with the Oulipo movement, which Queneau co-founded in 1960. Queneau’s ten sonnets are printed so that every line exists on its own cut strip of paper, allowing the reader to technically compose “one hundred million million” different sonnets by combining the lines on their own. The book was originally published by Éditions Galliard under the title Cent mille milliards de poèmes in 1961.
Ronald Johnson.
Songs of the Earth.
Grabhorn-Hoyem, 1970.
In the book’s introduction, Johnson describes this series of concrete poems as “twelve squarings of the circle,” and as “listenings, as poems must listen and sing simultaneously. They are a progression of hearings of Mahler’s ‘Song of the Earth’ on records, in concert, and in my head.” Printed letterpress by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem in San Francisco.
Scott Helmes.
“Language.”
The Hermetic Press, 1986.
Published as part of a portfolio titled Five Visual Poems, constructed of decorated paper, and containing five broadsides of varying dimensions, each designed with or by Philip Gallo. Gallo also served as printer and typesetter for the project through his longstanding press, The Hermetic Press.
Jonathan Williams and John Furnival.
Ant On Bruckner.
Openings Press, 1982.
This etching was part of the large portfolio, Letters to the Great Dead, an unfinished, epic collaboration between Furnival and Williams. Of this particular piece, in Modern Painters (no. 78, Summer 1992), Williams wrote: “ANT-ON-BRUCKNER is my own favourite. How could the poet expect a more cosmic solution than that?”