Micah Lexier and Christian Bök | Two Equal Texts

Micah Lexier and Christian Bök

Two Equal Texts

Vancouver, Canada: Fillip, 2008

Foil-stamped, double-sided book bound in Arrestox Blue Twine bookbinding cloth

Edition of 15 signed and numbered copies

THIS TEXT AND THE ONE

BESIDE IT ARE EQUAL.

I WROTE THIS ONE FIRST,

AND THEN I GAVE IT TO MY

FRIEND CHRISTIAN BOK

AND ASKED HIM TO

GENERATE A NEW TEXT

USING EVERY LETTER AND

EVERY PUNCTUATION

MARK THAT I USED IN MINE.

THE OTHER TEXT IS HIS.

MICAH LEXIER REQUESTED

IN ADVANCE THAT I

REINVENT HIS TEXT. SO

I UNKNOTTED IT AND

REKNITTED INTO THIS 

VERY FORM, BUT THEN I 

BEGAN TO THINK THAT HIS 

MESSAGE HAD ALREADY 

RESEWN A TOUTED ART 

OF GENUINE POETRY. HIS

EERIE TEXT WAS MINE.

The above texts were originally shown in the windows of Printed Matter, NYC, in February 2007, then a few months later at MKG127's first location in Toronto, and the following January as part of the ARTery exhibition at the Prairie Art Gallery, Grande Prairie, Alberta. 

They were slightly reworked later that year for the above edition, published as a fundraiser for Fillip Magazine. It's available from the publisher for $750, here. 

The anagram is also one of three works in one of three sections of Lexier's current retrospective at the Power Plant (see review in the Globe and Mail, here, and in the Toronto Star, here and here). The exhibition is divided into the three sections of the title: One, and Two, and More Than Two. "And Two" features works Lexier made in collaboration with writers, including Bök,  Derek McCormack and Colm Tóibín. The Tóibín is a take-away work (more on that in a future post).