Abstract
In Ron Silliman’s essays in L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine, he calls for a closer relationship between the materiality of the page and its content, wanting poetry to stand outside commodification by resisting easy absorption by the reader. Language poet Johanna Drucker, an expert on artists’ books, writes critically about that medium while also creating books that call attention to their own materiality. Concerned with “owning the means of production,” Language poets often collaborate with book artists and small presses. Two examples of collaboration between poet Susan Howe with artist Susan Bee and artists’ book presses Granary Books and Coracle Press fulfill Language poetry’s politico-aesthetic desire to call attention to and defy hegemonic literary production, distribution, and meaning-making.
Selected Bibliography
- Bernstein, Charles. Introduction. Figuring the word: essays on books, writing, and visual poetics. By Johanna Drucker. New York, Granary Books, 1998
- Drucker, Johanna. The visible word : experimental typography and modern art, 1909-1923. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
- Paton, D. “The Bookness of a Book: Cataloging Affect in South African Artists’ Books.” Library Trends, vol. 68, no. 3, Dec. 2020, pp. 521-548–548. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libdata.lib.ua.edu/10.1353/lib.2020.0004.
- Stupples, Peter. Art and Book: Illustration and Innovation. United Kingdom, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
- White, Tony. “From Democratic Multiple to Artist Publishing: The (R)Evolutionary Artist’s Book.” Art Documentation: Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2012, pp. 45–56. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libdata.lib.ua.edu/10.1086/664913.
Publication
Under review.