Asemic 16 Collaboration

Its just as well I started searching for this book as I was reminded that firstly it had never entered The New Alexandrian Library documentation and secondly, I'd forgotten how amazing it was, so it was a wonderful surprise to see it again after so long.  All the introductions from De Villo Sloan are an important part of the documentation of this book.  They will also form part of the 'article' - I hesitate to call it that yet as it's still embryonic (but long!).
5 sets of artists in groups of 16 participated in this international call, hosted by IUOMA.

This volume comprised 3 collaborations. I have included De Villo's first introduction here as he said everything worth saying! He was an excellent co-host I might add. I remember that we had so many volumes as there were so many people wanting to participate - an exciting experience!  Books like these make me loathe to just surrender my library to a university institution!!!  Various artists around the world bound their handsome volumes too, and I know they went on a variety of exhibitions around the world.

Asemics 16 - Introduction to Edition 1 

De Villo Sloan 

The global mail-art network, which evolved from art practices in the United States and Europe in the 1960s, has for decades served as a conduit for visual-verbal forms. Mail-art’s close ties to the Fluxus movement have unquestionably strengthened this connection. Vital work long-nurtured by the network includes concrete poetry, visual poetry, haptic and object poetry as well as the fairly esoteric yet endlessly fascinating practice of asemic writing.

 In May 2011, South African artist Cheryl Penn launched an ambitious collaborative mail-art book project encompassing four editions; this is the first. I have been greatly honored to coordinate the project with her. The International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA), founded by Ruud Janssen of the Netherlands, has served as an ideal headquarters in cyberspace for an effort that involves many artists from around the globe.

 Through Asemics 16, Penn has sought to chronicle the work of contemporary asemic writers in the mail-art network, to encourage other artists to explore asemic writing, and to push the boundaries of current practice. Thus you will find in this edition work by asemic writers who are well-known in the field. You will also find artists who work in collage, painting, photography, and conceptual art, among others. By crossing traditional boundaries they have produced extraordinarily innovative contributions.

 The realm of asemic writing includes the invention of imaginary languages with corresponding symbols and systems for their arrangement. Asemic writing suggests a language, might at times reveal traces of known language, but ultimately cannot be read as any existing language or extinct language that has been recorded. Through the absence, discontinuity or disruption of conventional signification, new meanings and realizations are made possible. Visual and material elements of written language are brought to the forefront.

 Depending upon the approach taken by the individual artists in Asemics 16 – Edition 1, asemic writing can be wondrously simple or intriguingly complex. Some of the artists found inspiration in the scrawling of young children seeking to mimic the writing they have seen but not yet mastered; some delved into personal symbol systems they first created as children themselves.

 Other contributors have made asemic signs and syntax from found material and asemic-suggestive shapes in nature. Some have delved into prehistoric glyphs and ancient texts; others have drawn inspiration from street art. The result in Asemics 16 is a vast, global dialog of human expression not constrained by time, space or language.

 Asemic writing is also a medium that can be illuminated and explained through advanced cultural theory in fields including semiotics and linguistics. It addresses deeply philosophical questions involving indeterminacy, incomprehensibility, and meta-language. This edition with all its visual richness brings us together in the shared experience of being human and our relationship to the world.

 De Villo Sloan

August 8, 2011

Auburn, New York, USA  

On this spread are pages by Rosa Gravino (Argentina), Frieder Speck (Germany) and Guido Vermeulen (Belguim), who was a great loss to the Mail Art Community. 

Toxic Bachelors

Toxic Bachelors

Unique altered book, mixed media, including collage, altered text, inserted letters, nuts/bolts, glass case. 

So this is an oldie, but a goodie. I heaved it out from under the building rubble - not the bricks and mortar rubble, the STUFF rubble. I’m SO in two minds as to what to do with my collection of books. I must have, altogether, over 1000 artists books, in the main, handmade. I really DO need a reading room. Toxic Bachelors was part of my altered books stage. It was made in 2008 - its hard to believe its ten years old. The book I chose to alter was Toxic Bachelorsby Daniel Steele. The story in the main concentrated on 3 successful, good looking blah blah blah men who gave up their bachelor status for love, of the novel kind. The original text of the novel was painted out and words appropriate to a more sinister meaning were kept. For example, the words remaining on the page dealing with Alegre Patrice, the sadistic, deluded Frenchman who was convicted of 115 murder/rapes are:…an unforgettable night…and for one night at least she had forgotten everything she wanted… Quite spooky and thoroughly unpleasant when one removes words and phrases from their original context. There’s a lesson to be learned there for sure.  Within the pages I collected and inserted letters from women who have had toxic men in their lives. It’s not a pleasant read. 

Making Poetic the Visual and Visual the Poetic

Making Poetic the Visual and Visual the Poetic

This book came about as a result of Course 2 in the MoJo Modules - Accessing Instinctual Creativity. The five classes were:

What is Poetry and this included a skid through the history of poetry and its various forms. Using asemic writing, we then wrote a limerick, a quatern, a sonnet and free verse poetry - all of which would form part of a chapbook which was published in an edition of 5 at the end of the course.

Free Form word formation and association was the task in session 2. It was collaborative in that we all worked on 24 different sets of pages.

These will form part of the next edition of Mail Art Makes the World a Town (See An Encyclopedia of Everything - http://an-encyclopedia-of-everything.blogspot.com )

 Visual Representation of Words and Language (including Poetry) from Ancient times to today was the next section we tackled, including the skid, the slide…(you have to book for the course to find out about that one)!  And so we went on, until the final class where we assembled the artists books.  Remember - this is not about being a necessarily a poet - but everyone was surprised, how given the chance, words make their presence felt.  The course is about accessing creativity which resides inside ALL of us and this module used the poetics and visual-ness of words as medium.

The final hard covered book consisted of 4 chapbooks from the participants and a book of visual poetry by John Bennett (USA) who a while ago had sent me extra copies of one of his publications, in an accordion format with pamphlet stitch pockets.

Chapbooks - I have a LIBRARY to blog...!

Penn, Cheryl (South Africa)

Chapbooks

Babel (Where the Babbling Began)

A publication of 70 chapbooks by Tonerworks (Reed Altemus) 2013.  Going back to the start, where the babble began. It’s a very good practice to have a place one always goes back to when ‘stuck’. As language is one of my great passions, I always return to the Tower of Babel as the origin of new work - it’s a great spark, and Reed was kind enough to publish a set of these visual poetry images. 

Asemic Works

I paint, scratch, write, burn, print - you name it I make ‘writing’ from everything. It’s the foundation of all my work, the part that greets to canvas/wood/paper first. Sometimes it moves to become something else, but most often not. I see the confusion my work produces, but my journey on the Give Me Back my Mo-Jo courses more fully entrenches by engagement with this writing form.  (Published by 1999 Jelly Bean Co, edition of 15, no.1 of 15).

Life IS as complex as it seems

Yes! It really is…I don’t think that needs much explanation… (Published by 1999 Jelly Bean Co, edition of 15, no.1 of 15).).

Meta Poetry (a this and that on this and that Volume 1)

This chapbook was a VERY happy result of the course on Visual Poetry, given as part of the Give Me Back My Mo-Jo modules. It is an experiment with poetic forms and the introduction of my own ‘new’ structures; The Rorschach Plot, The Bleed and The Fade - something which definitely is going to receive further exploration. (Published by 1999 Jelly Bean Co, edition of 10, no.1 of 10).