This was my final letterpress printed book, created in response to events encountered on my arrival to Los Angeles in 2009. I attended a poetry reading in the chaos of an art gallery, street fair, openings, and other activities in a cultural setting in Hollywood and wondered about the status of literary work in the larger contemporary field. The through-lines examine these events, but also, the premise that poetics is stochastic in its evolution and transformation, changing according to complex conditions that cannot be predicted. The text interweaves the study of quantum theory, classical poetics, and multiple voices. The letterpress printing is also stochastic, with no single line held in the linear quadrature essential to the craft and overprinting creating unique impressions for each copy in the edition. The work is at once theoretical and documentary, parodic and serious, and unlike any other work in contemporary poetics or fine press printing. The cover was polished aluminum.
Johanna Drucker
type: initiating
role:
artist
author
designer
printer
publisher: Druckwerk and Granary
dates:
production: 2010-00-00 to 2012-00-00
publication history: Two-year production of the first and only edition, with a Blurb edition available on demand.
movement:
visual poetry
subject:
poetics
artists' books (LCSH)
themes: Stochastic processes, poetics, social space of aesthetics.
content form:
visual poetry
publication tradition:
artists' book (local)
typopoiesis (local)
inspiration: A reading event in Hollywood, study of quantum theory and stochastic processes, history of poetics.
related works: Quantum, The Current Line, From A to Z.
other influences: Aristotle and chaos theory.
manuscript type: texts
location: Beinecke Library, Yale.
manuscript type: mockups
location: Beinecke Library, Yale.
manuscript type: other
location: Beinecke Library, Yale.