The James Dean of Lettrism is back in this disruptive chapbook. The spirit of Dada lives in Doug Skinner’s first English translation of Considérations sur la mort et l’enterrement de Tristan Tzara—originally unleashed in 2012 in a limited Black Scat edition of 50 copies. Here Isou recounts his bizarre and humorous behavior at Tristan Tzara’s funeral in France.
Isidore Isou, the founder of the artistic movement Lettrism, was a great admirer of the Dadaist Tristan Tzara. So, when Tzara died in 1963, Isou disrupted the funeral to give the great provocateur a properly raucous sendoff. Isou’s lively account of the proceedings is both a polemic against traditional funerals and a warm declaration of his affection and admiration for Tzara.
In this issue: Marc-Alain Barbot; Tom Barrett; Michael Betancourt; Isabelle B.L; Restif de la Bretonne; Mamie Caton; Norman Conquest; Caroline Crépiat; Art Dandy; farewell debut; Ange Degheest; Jean-Pierre Duffour; Luc Fierens; Jack Granath; Isidore Isou; Amy Kurman; Claude Nicolas Ledoux; Giambattista Palatino; Raymond Queneau; Reese Saxment; Karen Shaw; Doug Skinner; Corinne Taunay; John J. Trause; Tristan Tzara; Cal Wenby; and Femke van der Wijk.
6 x 9 inches; 148 pp.; paperback; $14.95 ISBN: 979-8-9869224-5-4
LATEST NEWS:
Typo: Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, & Constrained Design is the first in a promised (irregular) series of anthologies devoted to oddities of typographic design history, extending from now to the 1400s, including mnemonic devices, “Forty-Five First Letters” (they’re real!), “Surrealist Sign Language,” asemic writing, and lots more from Doug Skinner, Norman Conquest, Raymond Queneau, Isadore Isou and other contributors. Visually fun to look at and filled with interesting historical factoids about printing. — i arrogantly recommend… by Tom Bowden, BOOK BEAT
TYPO in PRINT
TYPO hits the top of the charts on Amazon
RAVE REVIEW
“The first issue of TYPO … has arrived at an ideal moment in the evolution of avant garde and experimental art and writing. The monuments of the 20th century avant garde such as DaDa, Surrealism, Lettrism and Oulipo are enjoying healthy interest in the digital age, inspiring the creation of new genres.TYPO provides fresh insights and perspectives on these movements.
TYPO is not another contribution to the wax museum of official culture. The editors interweave selections from what poet Ron Silliman calls the post-avant with the historic avant garde and esoteric visual-verbal examples from earlier centuries. Included are new iterations and genres in the continuum such as asemics, digital collage, neo-concrete and visual poetry as well as typographical innovations rooted in Lettrism. Accessible and highly enjoyable prose complements the flow of images.”
Yes, Virginia, Black Scat Review does DADA FORGERY. But is it anti-art?
You be the judge.
#17 is loaded with incendiary art & texts by Captain Anonymous, David Moscovich, Tristan Tzara, Anna Keeler, Christy Sheffield Sanford, Karl Waldmann, Ruth Crossman, Norman Conquest, Paulo Brito, Harry McCullagh, Michael Leigh, Gregory Autry Wallace, Eîlot Tuerie, Terri Lloyd, Doug Skinner, and Joseph Heathcott.
This is the last issue of BSR and a fitting finale it is. Don’t miss this one, folks, it’s destined to wind up a collector’s item on the ash heap of art history.
Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara by Isidore Isou, (translated by Doug Skinner) was on display recently in London at an exhibition of DADA, LETTRISM, FLUXUS, FUTURISM, SOUND & CONCRETE POETRY, curated by Frédéric Acquaviva. Alas, we were not there for the festivities, but hear that the book was quite popular with attendees.
There are only a few copies remaining in Scat’s limited edition, so if you haven’t nabbed one … now’s the time. CLICK HERE
Frédéric Acquaviva writes from Berlin to inform us of the above exhibition in the UK on March 4th. Anyone planning to be in London should make a point of attending. Visitors can eyeball & sniff rare specimens of DADA, LETTRISM, FLUXUS, FUTURISM, SOUND & CONCRETE POETRY. You’ll also spot Black Scat’s Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara by Isidore Isou which—like a talisman–will hang suspended from the ceiling in a plastic envelope. For those unable to attend, we’ll be posting photos from the show.
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AIR FRANCE: MISSON IMPOSSIBLE
We’ll also be posting photos of Alain Arias-Misson when he travels to New York City from his home in Paris. There will be many gala events from March 12-19th: an art exhibition, performance of his Public Poem, as well as a series of readings from his new fiction collection, The Man Who Walked On Air & Other Tales of Innocence – published by Black Scat. The book is now available on Amazon in Europe as well as here in the USA.
We will post details of Alain’s whirlwind tour in the near future.
blackscatbooks.com 