eMTeVisPub has announced the release of a new 80-page edition - Jem Tabs Trace - chronicling vispo collabs by John M. Bennett and Matthew M. Stolte over the past ten years:
Both John M. Bennett (Ohio, USA) & Matthew Stolte (Wisconsin, USA) are longtime contributors to the Asemic Front project. I have seen their collabs at diverse venues & noted energy & progression in their longtime exchanges.
I have also collected some of their work, such as the Jem Tabs Dose chapbook, for the archives & that is providing images for this post. Jem Tabs Dose - also published by eMTeVisPub - is a shorter but visually stunning collab chapbook of 24 pages by John & Matt that was published in 2015. Such are the complexities of tracing vispo publications!
AF2 readers know I have a great interest in the Midwestern USA visual poets who emerged in the 1980s, especially in Ohio & Wisconsin & the gritty late-industrial aesthetic they pioneered & the profound changes in visual poetry they instigated.
John M. Bennett is a central figure in the movement (as much as a "movement" can exist in the individualistic USA heartland) & Matthew Stolte represents at least a second generation of Rust Belt vispo or Rustpo (a real mail art moniker for the school!) or Great Lakes vispo or other names associated with the group. Diane Keys & Chris Wells are among other new generation members & for me I think one of the most interesting aspects is seeing new generations assimilate & contribute to healthy growth.)
Bennett & Stolte, in my estimation, offer impressive "visual writing" in their linear-textual pieces especially but also in much more minimalist lyrics. I contend "deconstructive asemics" are apparent in the collection. These collabs will doubtless be of great interest to the AF2 audience.
- De Villo Sloan
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