AF2 Commentary: Hannah Weiner at the Intersection of Asemic Writing and Visual Poetry

Cover of WRITTEN IN THE ZERO ONE by Hannah Weiner. Published in 1985 

(edition of 350) by Pete Spence, Post-Neo Publications, Victoria, Australia. 

(Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive)

I have been reviewing presses where I believe contemporary iterations of visual, concrete, and asemic poetries first took root. Correspondent of many miles and years, Pete Spence, sent me a package that included a 24-page chapbook titled WRITTEN IN THE ZERO ONE by Hannah Weiner. Pete Spence produced this first edition of 350 in 1985.

New forms in visual poetry, the emergence of a new concrete poetry plus the articulation of a theory of asemics aka asemantic writing were shared on a global scale in the 1980s: new genres evolving to the present moment. Pete Spence and a few others – such as Miekal And in Wisconsin, USA – invented and disseminated these new forms of visual poetry to tiny and “underground” audiences.

Marveling at Weiner’s WRITTEN IN THE ZERO ONE, I can see from a distant perspective that critical theory and especially the work of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets had a pronounced impact on the evolution of visual poetry and asemic writing. Weiner’s interest in clairvoyance and apparitions of language make her of keen interest to calligraphers and glitchers alike who have roots in automatic writing.

Entering Weiner’s chapbook, I am drawn into a world where I am enmeshed in a net of language, which is the only way I can comprehend my reality. Weiner is engrossed in process, wordplay, the appearance of poly-voices: I find her discourse more and more engaging as I read. She presents the writing like a sound poem score. Not surprisingly, the words make structures on the page, and we are moving into the realm of a concrete poetry but far from George Herbert’s angel wings. 

From WRITTEN IN THE ZERO ONE by Hannah Weiner. Published in 1985 

(edition of 350) by Pete Spence, Post-Neo Publications, Victoria, Australia. 

(Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive)

A crucial difference between the stance of the New American Poetry and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing is that the former strove for immediacy and direct experience. Allen Ginsberg’s “first thought; best thought” is well-known. L=A=N=G-U=A=G=E writers insist our only experience of the world is language and, ultimately, language can only speak about itself. Regrettably, the nihilist view endures as visual poetries emerge as serious contenders in 21^st century literary culture. 

- De Villo Sloan

May 29, 2025

Elbridge, New York, USA

From WRITTEN IN THE ZERO ONE by Hannah Weiner. Published in 1985

 (edition of 350) by Pete Spence, Post-Neo Publications, Victoria, Australia. 

(Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive)

Burroughs is a Virus: Ferran Destemple's Asemic Clairvoyant Dialogs with "Uncle Bill" (Spain)

Cover of art catalog altered by Ferran Destemple (Barcelona, Spain) 

with asemic signs made with/by William S. Burroughs

 found in The Soft Machine and elsewhere. 

(no date) Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive. 

Burroughs is a Virus: Ferran Destemple's Asemic 

Clairvoyant Dialogs with "Uncle Bill"

I have written a number of Asemic Front 2 articles about a Spanish visual poet - Ferran Destemple - who is doing fascinating work with asemic signs by William S. Burroughs. See the Soft Machine article and other work by Destemple and Burroughs on AF2.

https://asemicfront2.blogspot.com/2024/08/af2-commentary-ferran-destemples-asemic.html

A number of us currently involved in asemics discovered this esoteric practice via the work of Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. (Many more sources of asemic inspiration can be found and, I think, are worthy of in-depth exploration.) 

While examples of Gysin's calligraphic work are readily available, Burroughs' asemic output is less well known. Destemple "writes-over" Picasso (and cultural Modernity) with anti-symbols  invented by Burroughs. Destemple's asemics salvage incomprehensible lost languages from the wasteland of WSB's imagination.

Of even more interest to me are Destemple's asemic dialogs with the dearly departed Burroughs. The result is an asemiotic construct of beauty and complexity. We live in a time when musicians collaborate via AI with musical partners dead nearly a half century to make new hits. Ferran's dialogs with WSB are entirely reasonable - even expected.

I look forward to sharing more work by Ferran Destemple. His kind missive explains much and is so articulate I give you the full text:  

Dear De Villo, 

I am sending you an asemic piece by Uncle Bill (Burroughs). In this work, Bill's asemic writing is inscribed over a Picasso art catalog. It is a dialog between two artists' visions: Burroughs' (writing) and Picasso's (paint), the language virus, the writing virus, injects Picasso's drawings.

Uncle Bill is making more work with printed texts by other artists. He is also working on pieces of asemic writing with AI. 

I will send you more work soon.

Best regards,

- Ferran Destemple

April 14, 2025

Cabrils, Spain

From altered art catalog by Ferran Destemple (Spain) 

with asemic signs by William S. Burroughs.

(no date) (Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive.)

From altered art catalog by Ferran Destemple (Spain) 

with asemic signs by William S. Burroughs.

(no date) (Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive.)

From altered art catalog by Ferran Destemple (Spain) 

with asemic signs by William S. Burroughs.

(no date) (Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive.)

From altered art catalog by Ferran Destemple (Spain) 

with asemic signs by William S. Burroughs.

(no date) (Courtesy of Asemic Front Archive.)

"Pharmacological Series" - New Visual Poetry by Laura Kerr (Canada)

"Still Life With Medicine" by Laura Kerr (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) 

(May 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

My Pharmacological Series

by Laura Kerr

is a poetic diagnostic series that is part visual poetry and part conceptual critique. It explores

how language, like medicine, is dosed, delayed, over-prescribed, and sometimes ineffective.

My work does not promise cures. It functions more like poetic capsules:

distilled, delayed, mislabeled, or blank.

Where Damien Hirst gave us the cabinet, I give you the chart. The insert. The unread scan.

Each image is a fragment of medicalized language -

glitched, withheld, or still processing.

This is pharma-poetics as ghost report.

a place where meaning is pending,

prescriptions overflow,

and the poem refuses its own diagnosis.

-SSS-

"A/Distilling/X-Ray []" by Laura Kerr (May 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

"500 mg. Poem" by Laura Kerr (May 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

"Monochrome Field: Complete with PILL Folded Inside" 

by Laura Kerr (May 2025) (Image courtesy of the artist)

"Dossier of a Post-Human Therapist" by Laura Kerr (May 2025) 

(Image courtesy of the artist)

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.)