Babel Edition 9

Original (Cheryl Penn)

# 1 Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and David Stone. Edition of 20.

I have not done a large collaboration for quite a quite a while, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it pans out.  The idea is that I send participants 2 copies of a chapbook titled Babel, one to keep and one to alter.  The original altered copy is sent back to me and I make an edition of 7.  I keep one, two get sent back to the artist, one bound, one unbound for them to copy and reproduce if they wish.  They also receive 5 other chapbooks from other artists who have followed this same process. The first one I have tackled is with the poet David Stone (USA). David exchanged words via email. As a wordsmith David is immediately responsive to titles and images and his poetry is its usual enigmatic, apparently disconnected phrases and words which, once read somehow make total sense. They also evoke strong mental imagery. 

“bracketed barriers enclosed the summation of

orders

toes tagged

silence lost” 

As I had a bit of time on my hands, the copies I made have numerous hand painted elements, but I‘m not sure if this practice will remain, although 7 copies is quite manageable. There are an extra few copies for him and I to both distribute. I will be using this small volume as an enticement - (I hope!) for others to join in the collaboration. 

Original chapbook which was altered

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).