Miekal And

Giving this a review is a bit silly b/c this is just basically something that was made to hand out to attendees to an art event & wasn't necessarily intended as anything substantial. Nonetheless, I've archived it, it's on my poetry shelf b/c it was made by Miekal And whose bks I primarily associate w/ poetry, but I'm presenting it here as an artist's bk, & as the 1st of these to be presented here I feel like I shd at least cut the ribbon or the umbilical cord or something. Just making a "passport" for an event & going to the trouble of wrapping it in newspaper is one of those touchs that makes me imagine that this was probably a fun event where the organizers took that extra trouble that makes things interesting.… (lisätietoja)

Xexoxial Editions was (still is?) one of the most prolific small press publishers of experimental writing that I've known of. Substantial care was often given to making the bks unique as objects in & of themselves. This one doesn't fall into that category but others that I'll review here will. "L=I=N=K=L=A=G=E" is "for Bernstein & Andrews" - meaning the editors of "L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E" magazine (from wch the title is obviously derived) - an early critical magazine central to the discussion of "language writing". The longest section of this bk is called "THE CAVE CHILDREN OF NEW YORK ARE NEVER FREE" wch I find particularly funny given that "L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E" was a NYC-based publication.… (lisätietoja)

SASE = Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. In And's intro he writes: "This book is subject to the add to & return mentality of the mail art network." One of the last pages asks the reader to react to:

1. Circus
2. Geranium
3. Gossip
4. Jostle
5. Modernistic
6. Oily
7. Propaganda
8. Rose Bowl
9. Sissy
10. TVA

& to send the responses to an address given for And. The bk concludes w/: "Now that we have entered the age of cheap & ubiquitous digital manipulation of typography & page design, it has become important to document the sheer volume & variety of typestyles one can mix together, even in a slim volume such as this." He then goes on to list 22 "faces" used. "Layout & typography become intrinsic to the act of writing." & this bk's definitely an example of that position.… (lisätietoja)