Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Pandgt;Pioneering conceptual artist Vito Acconci began his career as a poet. In the 1960s, before beginning his work in performance and video art, Acconci studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop and published poems in journals and chapbooks. Almost all of this work remains unknown; much of it appeared in the self-produced magazines of the Lower East Side's mimeo revolution, and many other pieces were never published. Language to Cover a Page collects these writings for the first time and not only shows Acconci to be an important experimental writer of the period, but demonstrates the continuity of his early writing with his later work in film, video, and performance.Language to Cover a Page documents a key moment in the unprecedented intersection of artists and poets in the late 1960s--as seen in the Dwan Gallery's series of "Language" shows (1967-1970) and in Acconci's own journal 0 to 9. Indeed, as Acconci moved from the poetry scene to the art world, his poetry became increasingly performative while his artwork was often structured and motivated by linguistic play.Acconci's early writing recalls the work of Samuel Beckett, the deadpan voice of the nouveau roman, and the jump cuts and fraught permutations of the nouvelle vague. Poems in Language to Cover a Page explore the materiality of language ("language as matter and not ideas," as Robert Smithson put it), the physical space of the page, and the physicality of source texts (phonebooks, thesauruses, dictionaries). Other poems take the space of the page as an analogue to performance space or implicate the poem in a network of activity (as in his "Dial-a-Poem" pieces). Readers will find Acconci's inventive and accomplished poetry as edgy and provocative as anything published today.andlt;/Pandgt;
Review
"Vito Acconci's remarkable array of textual productions, presented by poet-scholar Craig Dworkin, is a terrific contribution to our understanding of the ways in which visual, verbal, and performance arts intersected in the later decades of the 20th century. Acconci's texts embody the many facets of his own complex practice, and the process-driven works collected here document a crucial period in the history of experimental writing. This book will make clear the extent to which Acconci is one of the major artist-writers of conceptual art. As for Dworkin, who better to take on the task than this sophisticated reader-practitioner of the creative and critical arts?"--Johanna Drucker, Robertson Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia
Review
"Before he became famous as video, performance, and multimedia artist, Vito Acconci considered himself to be a poet -- a designer, so to speak, of printed pages. His fascinating poetic experiments, most of them previously unpublished, take ordinary, colloquial language and apply both formal constraints and Wittgensteinian propositions to their articulation. Decades ahead of its time, the writing Craig Dworkin has lovingly assembled and edited for this collection uncannily anticipates our own verbivocovisual experiments: here 'delay' becomes revelation!"--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary* The MIT Press
Review
"This is not just another anthology of Surrealist writings.
Review
"This fascinating, meticulously documented study of Pound's two unpublished Radio Operas, *The Testament of Francois Villon* and *Cavalcanti*, casts a remarkably wide net. It chronicles Pound's relation to the new medium of radio from his Futurist and Vorticist experiments to the moment of his notorious Rome broadcasts, all the while considering the larger relationship between avant-garde intermedia and the new technologies."--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*
Review
"In the endlessly war-torn and conflicted Yugoslav cultures of the twentieth century, the avant-garde was not just a museum luxury; it was always relentlessly political, activist, and truly transformative. This fascinating and meticulously assembled collection of essays by leading artists and scholars traces the daring and imaginative cultural production of Yugoslavia from the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918 to the fall of Yugoslavia itself in 1991. As such, this major publication opens our eyes to a whole new dimension of avant-garde practice. *Impossible Histories* will be read and discussed for years to come."--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*
Review
"How did the avant-garde of the New York Secession, the movement spearheaded by the brilliant photographer, editor, gallery director, and impresario Alfred Stieglitz, look to its own practitioners and their audiences? Jay Bochner's fascinating and lavishly illustrated documentary study casts its 'American lens' on key scenes when modernist poets and visual artists from Williams and Stein to O'Keefe and Stieglitz himself were changing our cultural and aesthetic landscape. The appraisal of the Stieglitz circlethat emerges is as surprising as it is absorbing. A great read!"--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*Please note: The third sentence may be omitted for space reasons.
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Before he became famous as video, performance, and multimedia artist, Vito Acconci considered himself to be a poet -- a designer, so to speak, of printed pages. His fascinating poetic experiments, most of them previously unpublished, take ordinary, colloquial language and apply both formal constraints and Wittgensteinian propositions to their articulation. Decades ahead of its time, the writing Craig Dworkin has lovingly assembled and edited for this collection uncannily anticipates our own verbivocovisual experiments: here 'delay' becomes revelation!"--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"This is not just another anthology of Surrealist writings.
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"This fascinating, meticulously documented study of Pound's two unpublished Radio Operas, *The Testament of Francois Villon* and *Cavalcanti*, casts a remarkably wide net. It chronicles Pound's relation to the new medium of radio from his Futurist and Vorticist experiments to the moment of his notorious Rome broadcasts, all the while considering the larger relationship between avant-garde intermedia and the new technologies."--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"How did the avant-garde of the New York Secession, the movement spearheaded by the brilliant photographer, editor, gallery director, and impresario Alfred Stieglitz, look to its own practitioners and their audiences? Jay Bochner's fascinating and lavishly illustrated documentary study casts its 'American lens' on key scenes when modernist poets and visual artists from Williams and Stein to O'Keefe and Stieglitz himself were changing our cultural and aesthetic landscape. The appraisal of the Stieglitz circlethat emerges is as surprising as it is absorbing. A great read!"--Marjorie Perloff, author of *Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary*Please note: The third sentence may be omitted for space reasons.andlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press
Synopsis
Pioneering conceptual artist Vito Acconci began his career as a poet. In the 1960s, before beginning his work in performance and video art, Acconci studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop and published poems in journals and chapbooks. Almost all of this work remains unknown; much of it appeared in the self-produced magazines of the Lower East Side's mimeo revolution, and many other pieces were never published. Language to Cover a Page collects these writings for the first time and not only shows Acconci to be an important experimental writer of the period, but demonstrates the continuity of his early writing with his later work in film, video, and performance.Language to Cover a Page documents a key moment in the unprecedented intersection of artists and poets in the late 1960s--as seen in the Dwan Gallery's series of "Language" shows (1967-1970) and in Acconci's own journal 0 to 9. Indeed, as Acconci moved from the poetry scene to the art world, his poetry became increasingly performative while his artwork was often structured and motivated by linguistic play.Acconci's early writing recalls the work of Samuel Beckett, the deadpan voice of the nouveau roman, and the jump cuts and fraught permutations of the nouvelle vague. Poems in Language to Cover a Page explore the materiality of language ("language as matter and not ideas," as Robert Smithson put it), the physical space of the page, and the physicality of source texts (phonebooks, thesauruses, dictionaries). Other poems take the space of the page as an analogue to performance space or implicate the poem in a network of activity (as in his "Dial-a-Poem" pieces). Readers will find Acconci's inventive and accomplished poetry as edgy and provocative as anything published today.
Synopsis
Poems and other texts from the 1960s by a pioneering conceptual artist that show a continuity with his subsequent work in performance and video art.
Pioneering conceptual artist Vito Acconci began his career as a poet. In the 1960s, before beginning his work in performance and video art, Acconci studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop and published poems in journals and chapbooks. Almost all of this work remains unknown; much of it appeared in the self-produced magazines of the Lower East Side's mimeo revolution, and many other pieces were never published. Language to Cover a Page collects these writings for the first time and not only shows Acconci to be an important experimental writer of the period, but demonstrates the continuity of his early writing with his later work in film, video, and performance.
Language to Cover a Page documents a key moment in the unprecedented intersection of artists and poets in the late 1960s -- as seen in the Dwan Gallery's series of "Language" shows (1967-1970) and in Acconci's own journal 0 to 9. Indeed, as Acconci moved from the poetry scene to the art world, his poetry became increasingly performative while his artwork was often structured and motivated by linguistic play.
Acconci's early writing recalls the work of Samuel Beckett, the deadpan voice of the nouveau roman, and the jump cuts and fraught permutations of the nouvelle vague. Poems in Language to Cover a Page explore the materiality of language ("language as matter and not ideas," as Robert Smithson put it), the physical space of the page, and the physicality of source texts (phonebooks, thesauruses, dictionaries). Other poems take the space of the page as an analogue to performance space or implicate the poem in a network of activity (as in his "Dial-a-Poem" pieces). Readers will find Acconci's inventive and accomplished poetry as edgy and provocative as anything published today.
Synopsis
Poems and other texts from the 1960s by a pioneering conceptual artist that show a continuity with his subsequent work in performance and video art.
Synopsis
Pioneering conceptual artist Vito Acconci began his career as a poet. In the 1960s, before beginning his work in performance and video art, Acconci studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop and published poems in journals and chapbooks. Almost all of this work remains unknown; much of it appeared in the self-produced magazines of the Lower East Side's mimeo revolution, and many other pieces were never published.
Synopsis
andlt;Pandgt;Poems and other texts from the 1960s by a pioneering conceptual artist that show a continuity with his subsequent work in performance and video art.andlt;/Pandgt;
About the Author
Conceptual artist Vito Acconci is known for his work in performance and video art.Craig Dworkin, Professor in the English Department at the University of Utah, is the author of Reading the Illegible and the editor of Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci (MIT Press).