The Joel Cohen Mail Art Asemic Intermedia Chainsaw Massacre

Mail art currently being circulated by Joel Cohen (New York City, USA)

I have written effusively praising the international mail art network (Eternal Network) for its longstanding support of visual poetry and, generally, avant and postavant genres. 

Because I want the network to be there for future generations of poets and artists as it was for us, I note this item currently being circulated by Joel Cohen. I find this a terrible insult - it is not funny - to the literary wing of the network. 

I can only conclude Cohen's "miserable miracle" (thx Henry Michaux) is the result of a lack of knowledge I find astonishing for a person with his involvement in the network. Maybe some texts cannot be reduced to a colorful water bottle sticker.

I do not know Joel Cohen nor his work very well. My understanding is he focuses on stamps - thus "Sticker Dude" - and is a one-man-band. A recent creation of his is this radically pruned version of the much-admired intermedia chart created by Dick Higgins in the 1990s. The original:

Granted, many permutations of the chart have passed through the network with alterations. I have always found them thoughtful and/or insightful humor. In comparison, Cohen is engaged in rampant deforestation aka "slash and burn." What I fear is that someone might actually believe it.

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"Under Cohen's steady hand, entire poetry movements of the 20th & 21st century are 'disappeared.' Visual poetry & its intersection with concrete poetry are all that remain..."

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Under Cohen's steady hand, entire poetry movements of the 20th and 21st century are "disappeared." Visual poetry and its intersection with concrete poetry are all that remain of decades of work by countless people here in December 2021. They appear to be - like balloons - drifting away from mail art.

Both visual poetry and mail art are experiencing transformations, both turbulent - but I believe - ultimately positive. I hope the visual poets and mail artists can move forward with mutual support and understanding.

- De Villo Sloan