AF2 Review: "Visual Poetry" by John McConnochie (Australia) (BlackHill Press)

Cover of Visual Poetry by John McConnochie (Queensland, 

Australia) (BlackHill Press 2025)

Review of Visual Poetry by John McConnochie

Kyneton, Victoria: BlackHill Press 2025

20 pages, chapbook

Review by De Villo Sloan

Australian poet, visual poet and groundbreaking publisher Pete Spence has released via BlackHill Press a beautifully curated yet Spartan collection of visual poems by John McConnochie.

John McConnochie has set an international gold standard for asemantic (aka asemic, abstract calligraphy) constructs due to his creative leadership at the New Postliterates group on Facebook: The largest digital community of asemic writers in the universe.

On the cover of Visual Poetry is a circular work: suggesting a cycle. The remainder of the contents is 15 (vaguely) sonnet-like structures that move through a stunningly diverse array of variations and styles. 

I find "reading" these poems is similar to the experience of reading a particularly moving lyric cycle. Perhaps you will approach the book from a different perspective. I hope my lyric cycle concept can serve as a beacon for those who lose their way in the forest of signs.

If John McConnochie is associated with the Neo-Abstract Expressionist bent emanating from the Postliterates, then Visual Poetry is a corrective. The collection reveals depth and skill far beyond the range of most postlits and glitchers. In all the upheavals of the Asemic Movement, I believe we have overlooked John McConnochie as a guiding talent.

From Visual Poetry by John McConnochie 

(BlackHill 2025)

John Richard McConnochie was born and raised in Liverpool, UK, where he studied illustration and graphic design. In 1974, he held his first exhibition in Lancashire and then - after traveling for a time - he began his distinguished arts career in Australia.

In his artist’s statement, John McConnochie writes, “It is all an experiment. All is process. Flux. I cross the lines, covering various paradigms of Asemic, Concrete and Visual Poetry…. I drift into pure textual experiments.”

For me a great achievement of Visual Poetry is its mastery of textuality and lyricism in addition to McConnochie’s abilities as a visual artist. The book has literary sophistication, subtle emotional nuances and extraordinary lyricism. Do not miss it!

From Visual Poetry by John McConnochie 

(BlackHill 2025)

De Villo Sloan is a concrete poet living in Upstate New York who writes about postavant lit, art & music. He is director of the Winifred & De Villo Sloan, Jr. Charitable Fund.

Subtlety & Minimalism: Asemics by by Ankie van Dijk (Netherlands)

By Ankie van Dijk (Baarle-Nassau, Netherlands) (This piece originally 

appeared in the journal dsignn (No. 4 (5)/2024) and is excerpted 

here at Asemic Front 2 with deepest thanks.) 

Image courtesy of the artist.

Visit full text of "Subtlety & Minimalism":

https://www.dsignn.online/en/online

By Ankie van Dijk (April 2025) 

Image courtesy of the artist.

Altered found writing by Ankie van Dijk (April 2025) 

Image courtesy of the artist.

Altered found writing by Ankie van Dijk (April 2025) 

Image courtesy of the artist.

Altered found writing by Ankie van Dijk (

April 2025) Image courtesy of the artist.

"Collage" by Ankie van Dijk (October 2024)  

Image courtesy of the artist.

AF2 Commentary: Asemic Narratology - Miekal And's "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" (Wisconsin, USA)

"Page 8 in KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" by Miekal And (Wisconsin, USA) 

(April 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

 

Asemic Narratology: Miekal And’s “KNOWTS FOR KNEVER: 

The Rediscovered Codex of X. Elam-Syr”

By De Villo Sloan

Visual poetry pioneer Miekal And is using artificial intelligence to weave complex sci-fi narratives and asemics. This is a fascinating synthesis of Philip K. Dick and Brion Gysin. Cheryl Penn (South Africa) is one of only a few visual poets I know who has attempted to integrate complex narratives into her work on this scale.

The digital narrative of “KNOWTS FOR KNEVER” gives a “speculative reconstruction” for the AI generated asemics that serve as the foundation of the narrative.

During the Asemics 16 collaborative book project, I noticed a popular method of asemic composition evolving: The artists merged visual poetry with the asemantic to intensify the expressionist power of the work. For instance, you might place weathered asemic neo-glyphs over glitched images of ruins.

Miekal And is expanding this genre to include fictions with asemic elements embedded. These have an affinity to graphic novels. Here is an example:

KNOWTS FOR KNEVER: The Rediscovered Codex of X. Elam-Syr

Name: X. Elam-Syr (speculative reconstruction)

Born: c. 1946–1953 (estimated)

Died: Unknown

Nationality: Presumed Martian-American (a symbolic nationality adopted within the work)

Known For: Inventor of the "Seismic Glyphic" and "Kneverline Script"

Field: Outsider Art, Visual Poetics, Scriptural Mysticism, Neo-Futurist Calligraphy

Associated Movements: Post-Linguistic Art Brut, Martian Semioticism, Autogenerative Diagrammatism

Major Work: KNOWTS FOR KNEVER (1960s?–1980s?)

Location of Discovery: Private archive, undated (discovered 2025)

(from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" by Miekal And)

"Page 4 in KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" by Miekal And 

(April 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

When I fully grasped that Miekal And had created organic, human-centric, folky asemics using Artificial Intelligence (on a number of levels), I came to appreciate the groundbreaking significance of the new medium. While using AI to construct new forms derived from the deepest roots of calligraphy, he has created texts - still rooted in human imagination - that are in actuality metasemic and hyper-real.

In a touch of irony not unnoted here, Miekal And has opened the field for linear narrative, genre fiction & other conventional modes in the asemic process of composition. I hope you will join me in following Miekal And's new work.

- De Villo Sloan

Elbridge, New York, USA

April 30, 2025

"Page 2 in KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" by Miekal And 

(April 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

(De Villo Sloan is a concrete poet who writes about postavant lit and art. He is director of the Winifred & De Villo Sloan, Jr. Charitable Fund.)

Selections from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER: The Rediscovered Codex of X. Elam-Syr" by Miekal And (USA)

"Page 3" by Miekal And (West Lima, Wisconsin, USA) (April 2025) 

from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" (Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 4" by Miekal And  (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER"

 (Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 9" by Miekal And (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" 

(Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 10" by Miekal And (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" 

(Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 11" by Miekal And (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" 

(Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 14" by Miekal And (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" 

(Image Courtesy of the artist)

"Page 15" by Miekal And (April 2025) from "KNOWTS FOR KNEVER" 

Image Courtesy of the artist)

New Post-Lettrist Metasemics by Kristen Szumyn (Australia)

"Isou’s meta-méca-esthétique for De Villo Sloan" by Kristen Szumyn

 (Australia) (April 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

Note from Kristen Szumyn: "From the archives; still shot from the short film."

Asemic Vispo Mail Art Collab by John M. Bennett (USA) & Jon Foster (USA)

 

"Untitled" mail art collab by John M. Bennett (Ohio, USA) & Jon Foster

 (North Carolina, USA) (April 2025) (Image courtesy of the artists)

Asemantic (Asemic) Calligraphy by Geof Huth (North Carolina, USA)

 

"The Red Waver" by Geof Huth (March 21, 2025) 

(Newport, North Carolina, USA) 

(Image courtesy of the artist)

"Moving into Position" by Geof Huth (March 21, 2025)

(Image courtesy of the artist)

"the scent of earth reminds me" by Geof Huth (March 22, 2025)

(Image courtesy of the artist)

"The Twelve Apostles" by Geof Huth (March 20, 2025) 

(Image courtesy of the artist)

"The High Pressure of Humanity" by Geof Huth (March 22, 2025) 

(Image courtesy of the artist)

"the weight of darkness is the weight of light"" by Geof Huth 

(March 20, 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)