Asemics 16 Collaborative Mail-Art Book Project
Introduction to Edition #2
By De Villo Sloan
In this second edition of the Asemics 16 mail-art project, you will find remarkable work by artists from around the world who have shared their talents and ideas to explore and expand the esoteric and fascinating practice of asemic writing.
We were very fortunate to benefit from the involvement of highly regarded artists and writers who work on the borderland where text and image meld. I offer special thanks to John M. Bennett and Cecil Touchon.
Asemics 16 is made even more unique because it also attracted artists producing highly innovative work in areas including painting, collage, photography and conceptual art. They brought tremendous excitement and enthusiasm. Their work opens vast possibilities for the future as we enter an era where traditional notions of poetry, fiction, and the text are reframed around the concept of post-literature.
The realm of asemic writing includes the invention of de-semanticized texts with corresponding symbols and systems for their arrangement. Asemic writing might at times reveal traces of known language but ultimately cannot be read as any existing language or extinct language that has been recorded.
The Asemics 16 book project was launched in May 2011 by South African artist Cheryl Penn. As the result of her study of U.S. artist Ray Johnson, Penn has led a number of highly successful book projects through the global mail-art network. The International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA), founded by Ruud Janssen of the Netherlands, served as an ideal headquarters in cyberspace for an effort that required extensive coordination and communication.
One beneficial aspect of the project made possible through IUOMA was group discussions that preceded individual work on chapters (and later sharing drafts). These included forming a consensus definition of asemic writing where participants explored topics including the relationship of found and natural objects to asemic writing; the relationship of asemic writing to visual poetry and concrete poetry as well as haptic and object poetry; and applications of cultural theory to illuminate practice. Examples of work by earlier authors and artists were discussed, in particular Cy Twombly, Mirtha Dermisache, Henri Michaux, and the collaborative work of Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs.
This second edition is rich in approaches to creating asemic writing. You will see beautiful and highly expressive cursive script where letters, words and phrases emerge, mirage-like – hinting at a message to the reader – only to fade elusively back into incomprehension and fragmented shapes that rise and fall from the unconscious.
Other artists take a material approach, fragmenting the existing letters into new symbols and syntax. Many of the artists have focused on placing their asemic work in relationship with other images, often creating a narrative context and inventing various hybrid visual-textual forms.
In the pages ahead is a dialog about the nature of language and the human experience by artists from an incredible array of cultures and perspectives. I invite you to delve deeply and enjoy their tremendous contributions.
De Villo Sloan
August 10, 2011
Auburn, New York
(revised 7.30.2024)
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