DOORS: To Oz and Other Landscapes

DOORS: To Oz & Other Landscapes

Submitted by:
bill
April, 2008

Known Contributors:
bpNichol

    Catalogue to an exhibition Dec 3 - Dec 21/79

    Vivaxis Gallery
    310 Dupont St
    Toronto
    grOnk IS 23

    An Introduction

    This exhibition, and the few examples printed in this catalogue, come from an area of my work I've never been able to find a useful term to de- scribe. Poem/drawings, hand-drawn poems, drawn poems - none of these seemed or seems accurate enough. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that the pieces presented here fall into the general area of the visuality of language & are one of the ap- proaches i have taken to that field or element of writing over the years.

    Why not simply call them drawings? Because tho i draw them their content has almost nothing to do with a desire to draw per se. What i have been concerned with, almost from the beginning, has been image manipulation, the exploration of certain perceived connections between a runic potential in the alphabet, the conventions of the comic strip & comic book, & serial & narrative structures in poetry & prose.

    My earliest visual poems i called "ideopomes" because 1 had read Fenellosa on the Chinese writ- ten character as a medium for poetry, because i was very interested in Chinese, Japanese, Haida & Kwakiuti poetic modes, & because i saw myself as consciously working with the ideogrammatic poten- tial of the arabic alphabet. This was before i learned of "Concrete Poetry" as such. I'd stum- bled there via Kenneth Patchen, e.e.cummings, Guilliaume Appollinaire, descriptions of some of Kurt Schwitters work & the above national poetries.

    This interest in the ideogrammatic & (as i later saw) runic capacity of the alphabet, ran parallel to an interest in the comic strip & its narrative & syntactic conventions. From 15 to 17 i did a series of comic strips about the adven- tures of a character named Bob de Cat (who resur- faced in Andy as Colonel Robert du Chat (along with Yahboo, another character from that same strip)) & mailed them to a friend of mine, Linda Grande, in Winnipeg. I began to draw the Mindtraps (one of which appeared in the JOURNEYING & the returns package) S five or six kids stories (one of vlhich, dreadfully drawn, appeared in an early Blew Oint- ment). The essential break-thrus were, first, Andy, ^here i began to include random frames as part of the narrative of the novel &, subsequently, LOVE: A Book Of Remembrances where the sequence Frames helped me make the leap into a pared down image vocabulary to parallel a pared down verbal vocabulary. At this point the impulse behind vari- ous drawn texts over the years began to coalesce into an articulation of intent. The "V" mark in a frame was as useful as the word "bird". The [drawing of cloud] sign was as clear as the word "cloud". Even more interestingly the [drawing of circle] offered an ambigu- ous choice between "sun" & "moon". Into this limi- ted vocabulated landscape (including mountains, trees, streams, waves, fences, roads, tornadoes, lightning bolts, etc) i placed the alphabet, the visible fact of language. Giant H's loomed over empty plains imaging the macro way i glimpsed these micro particles.

    In LOVE: A Book Of Remembrances, particularly in Trans-Con+inen+aI, Frames & Allegories, i found the bridges between various senses of language. There, in that play among the single letters that eventually lead on to the discoveries of Mid-In- itial Sequence & The Martyrology Book IV, the let- ters were freed to be themselves (in a way that echoed but significantly extended the work of Piere Gamier in i microcosmique & other works) & in the act of being themselves to carry additional symbolic contents. From the isolated drawn pieces that had preceded LOVE (texts such as MASQUES (; & DOORS 2 (in which the image of what i would come to see is prefigured)) i began to draw the serial texts which continue to absorb me to the present day. The early naming - Aleph Unit, Unit of Four - followed on the pattern of my 60's letraset pieces. But here the language & image flexibility was great- er.

    Language texts then, composed with a simpli- fied comic strip vocabulary/imagery. Working with- in & without the standard one frame unit of the comic strip i was able to image a language change. The thrust of the content was language, the thrust of the composition poetic, but the end product was drawn. Precisely because of that thrust, because of that process, formally & from the point of view of content, i think of these pieces as language texts & see them as occurring within the larger realm of my work with the visual aspect of lang- uage. Its particularly interesting, therefore, to hang these works on a wall & see how they take their place in that/this world.

    bpNichol
    Toronto, November 1979

    THIS EXHIBITION
    & THIS CATALOGUE
    ARE DEDICATED TO

    BARBARA CARUSO

    Pieces In The Exhibition

    1. MASQUES 1. 1970. Ink on paper. 12" x 14 1/2".
    2. DOORS 2. 1970. Ink on paper. 12" x 14 1/2".
    3. UNIT OF FOUR 1. 1971. Ink on paper. 9" x 9".
    4. UNIT OF FOUR 2. 1971. Ink on paper. 9" x 9".
    5. UNIT OF FOUR 3. 1971. Ink on paper. 9" x 9".
    6. UNIT OF FOUR 4. 1971. Ink on paper. 9" x 9".
    7. LOVE AFFAIR 1. 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 10".
    8. LOVE AFFAIR 2. 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 10".
    9. LOVE AFFAIR 3. 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 10".
    10. LOVE AFFAIR 4. 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 10".
    11. LOVE AFFAIR 5. 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 10".
    12. ALEPH UNIT CLOSED. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11".
    13. ALEPH UNIT OPENED. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11".
    14. ALEPH UNIT DISTANCE. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11".
    15. ALEPH UNIT SURFACE. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11".
    16. ALEPH UNIT OBSERVED. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11".
    17. ALEPH UNIT ENIGMATIC for Mona Lisa. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11"
    18. ALEPH UNIT IN TRANSIT. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11"
    19. ALEPH UNIT NOT. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11"
    20. sympHony (lucky number). 1971. Ink on paper. 10" x 6 1/4"
    21. PERSONA. 1971. Ink on paper. 9 1/2" x 11"
    22. H AT MIDNIGHT. 1973. Ink on paper. 8" x 11 1/2"
    23. MEMORIES OF SUMMER. 1973. Ink on paper. 10" x 10"
    24. DOOR TO OZ 2 (variant). 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"
    25. DOOR TO OZ 3. 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"
    26. DOOR TO OZ 4. 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"
    27. DOOR TO OZ 5. 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"
    28. DOOR TO OZ 6. 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"
    29. DOOR TO OZ 7. 1979. Ink on paper. 11 3/4" x 9 1/8"

    A Bibliography of Related Works by bpNichol
    This bibliography includes language texts, comic strips, comic book adaptations (the ANDROMEDA & ARIK KHAN items uhere i did the scripting only), & hand drawn & therefore related, miscellania. It suggests a larger essay which i really should get around to writing.
    "Ooljah's Story" in BLEW OINTMENT Vol 3 #1. Vancouver, 1965.
    "0 Baby Your Eyes" in WORK 4. Detroit, 1966.
    "Mindtrap" in bp. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1967.
    The Year Of The Frog. Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1967.
    Scraptures: Ninth Sequence. Toronto, grOnk Series 1 #2. 1967.
    Scraptures: Eleventh Sequence. Toronto, grOnk Series 1 #8, 1967. (excerpted in Arts Canada 134/135. August 1969.
    "Scraptures: Twelfth Sequence" (visual version) in Toronto Life. Toronto, January 1968.
    "Andy" in Two Novels. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1969. Reprinted, with new colour separations. 1971.
    to become obsessed with space. Postcard. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1969.
    "Scraptures (lost sequence)" in Snore Comix 2. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1970.
    "Scraptures: Fourteenth Sequence" in Snore Comix 2. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1970.
    Grease Ball Comics 1. Toronto, grOnk Series 8 #1. 1970.
    "That must be Gertrude there!!". Cartoon in Newfangles 41. Mentor, Ohio, November 1970.
    "The Unmasking of Captain Poetry" in The Captain Poetry Poems, (includes Masques 2 & 3) Vancouver, Blew Ointment Press, 1971.
    "transformations:" in Typewriter I. USA, 1971.
    "NEWF(ound1and?) ANGLES". Title cut in Newfangles 54. Mentor, Ohio, December 1971.
    "LOST i" in Winters College Tutorial Handbook 1971-72. Toronto, York University, 1971.
    Grease Ball Comics 2. Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1972.
    ColIbrations. (with Steve McCaffery). Toronto, grOnk Series 6 #5. 1972.
    "What Is Can Lit?" in Open Letter 5 (2nd Series). Toronto. Summer 1973.
    The Adventures of Milt the Morph In Colour. (with Barbara Caruso). Toronto, Serlpress, 1973.
    Aleph Unit. Toronto, Seripress, 1973.
    Unit of Four. Toronto, Seripress, 1973.
    "The Revolt of Rover Rawshanks", a comic strip, in CANAR 26. Kitchener, Ontario, December 1974.
    "Lonely Fred: The Cowboy Hero", a comic strip, in issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 11, 13, 15 & 50 of A Publication. Toronto, Therafields, 1974, 1975 & 1977.
    LOVE: A Book of Remembrances. Vancouver, Talonbooks. 1974.
    "Shocked Crowd" in L.A.Wallrich Catalogue #51. Toronto, L.A.Wallrich. 1976(?).
    "The Crusade" (scripted Foreword & one scene only) in Arik Khan I. Toronto, Silver Snail Comics, 1977.
    Alphhabet IIphabet. Toronto, Seripress, 1978.
    "Scraptures (last sequence)" in The Story So Far 5. Toronto, Coach House Press, 1978.
    "Exile of the Aeons" (adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke story) in Andromeda 3. Toronto, Silver Snail Comics, 1978.
    "The Narrow Land" (adaptation of the Jack Vance story) in Andromeda 4. Toronto, Silver Snail Comics, 1978.
    Love Affair. Toronto, Seripress, 1979.
    Movies. Toronto, Seripress, 1979.
    Door to Oz. Toronto, Seripress, 1979.
    "The Big Hunger" (adaptation of the Wlater M. Miller story) in Andromeda 5. Toronto. Silver Snail Comics, 1979.
    "The Bellergon Version" in Andromeda 5. Toronto, Silver Snail Comics, 1979.
    "Why Johnny Can't Speed" (adaptation of the Alan Dean Foster story) in Andromeda 6. Toronto, Silver Snail Comics. 1979.
    "Ecstatic Victor" in About Books Catalogue #61. Toronto. L.A.Wallrich, 1979.
    "Maa Kheru" in Arlk Khan 3. Toronto. Silver Snail Comics, 1979.
    DOORS: To Oz & Other Landscapes. Toronto, grOnk IS 23, 1979.
    ZYGAL. Toronto, Coach House Press, forthcoming (1980). Includes I.T.A.N.U.T.S. (Is There Anything New Under The Sun) & Line Telling, two series that fall between Aleph Unit & Door To Oz).

    This catalogue was printed in an edition of 200 copies, November 1979, & is the 23rd number of the Intermediate Series of grOnk. The Intermediate Series will end with number 24 (a revised index to Ganglia Press publications). It is no longer available by subscription.

    FRONT COVER: DOORS 2
    BACK COVER: DOOR TO OZ 5

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    Submitted by bill on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 15:24.