"the one that stayed underground" by Nancy Bell Scott (Maine, USA)
Here at Asemic Front 2 we are deeply saddened by the loss of Tom Hibbard, our longtime correspondent and advisor from Wisconsin, USA. Tom has contributed to the vibrancy of contemporary vispo on a global scale. He inspired numerous themes, investigations and experiments at the AF2 blog.
The previous five years were fruitful for Tom’s writing. He published what I am viewing as a trilogy of critical/theoretical books that I want to take this opportunity to recommend as essential to this audience.
Tom Hibbard’s Transcendent Topologies: Structuralism and Visual Writing was published in 2018 by Luna Bisonte Prods (Columbus, Ohio, USA) and is the book in the trilogy that I believe best represents a unified view of Hibbard’s theories with abundant examples by visual poets.
Tom, in particular, is a persuasive advocate for Luc Fierens (Belgium). The book includes insightful analysis of work by Michael Basinski, David-Baptiste Chirot, Maria Damon and Miekal And, Karl Kempton, and Nico Vassilakis, among others. Transcendent Topologies includes an afterword by Jim Leftwich.
While Tom Hibbard had the imagination and intellectual breadth to assume a role similar to the one held by Bob Grumman in previous years, Hibbard - unlike Grumman - applies critical and literary theory rooted in Western philosophy (incubated in the universities) to the emerging genres of asemics, vispo and neo-concrete poetry.
The book presents in-depth analysis of visual writing, asemic writing and other postavant genres. Included is writing about Luc Fierens, Jack Kerouac, Adriana Kobor, Michael Rothenberg, Spencer Selby, Eileen Tabios, among others. Useful examples of vispo and asemics are included too.
The book is a resource for those working with vispo and asemic theory. Hibbard's impressive knowledge of critical theory enables him to navigate - ultimately to the reader's benefit - the disputed, blasted terrain of competing forces seeking to colonize new forms.
In 2022, Luna Bisonte Prods published Poet on the Right Side of History: In Memoriam David-Baptiste Chirot, edited by Tom Hibbard, C. Mehrl Bennett and John M. Bennett. This third book I am including in the visual writing trilogy results from the death of celebrated poet David-Baptiste Chirot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2021.
Tom visited, assisted and provided comfort for David in the final weeks of his life. Tom's altruism and deference are a testimony to the depth of his generous heart. The experience led him to be the catalyst behind Poet on the Right Side of History, a remarkable assembly of voices and a marker in vispo history.
The volume includes tributes by Miekal And, C. Mehrl Bennett, John M. Bennett, Maria Damon, Vernon Frazer, Jonathan Minton, Stephen Perkins, Matthew Stolte, and Eileen Tabios. Geof Huth’s acclaimed account of his meeting with Chirot in September 2005 is reprinted.
Of most relevance to this review is Tom’s essay in the volume entitled “Flowers for Kane Place: The Last Days and Nights of David-Baptiste Chirot.” This deeply felt essay is a departure from the theory-driven abstractions of Transcendent Topologies and The Language Signifier.
Tom writes to Chirot, “Farewell, exiled friend. No worries. You died far from home and loved ones, but you saw what strong territorialism hid from those around you: the reality of loneliness and true existence. It made your artwork so essentially alive…” I believe this aspect of Tom’s writing is essential for a full appreciation of his achievements.
Tom Hibbard has left us a body work to explore and revisit extending far beyond the three books I have gathered here. Part of the tragedy of his loss is that we will never know what work he might have done to further develop his efforts with critical theory and new poetics. Yet others will build on his contributions and his work will be continued by others. Let us hope his spirit of sincerity and kindness remains with us.
