Anni Albers | Study made on the typewriter

Anni Albers

Study made on the typewriter

The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 2018

27 x 16.9 cm.

Edition of 5

As part of her weaving process, Anni Albers experimented with different materials and means, such as twisting and puncturing paper, and using corn kernels and metal shavings. 

For Study made on the typewriter she used the typewriter keys and black ink to create a pattern reminiscent of a textile. 

 

In 2018, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation released a high quality printed reproduction of the work, in an edition of five, as a fundraiser for the Tambacounda Hospital Maternity & Paediatric Unit. 

The works are priced at £1,000.00 and appear to still be available.  

"Our experience of gaining a representational means through the use of different surface qualities leads us to the use of illusions of such qualities graphically produced, though not by the means of representational graphic — that is, the modulated line. Drawing or print that shows hatching or stippling, rippled or curled lines, etc., and thus has a structural appearance, can be used to produce, if not actual tactile surfaces, the illusion of them. The tactile-textile illusions produced on the typewriter may illustrate this point. These varied experiments in articulation are to be understood not as an end

in themselves but merely as a help to us in gaining new terms in the vocabulary of tactile language."

- Anni Albers, On Weaving, 1965

 

Bob Cobbing | Sonic Icons

Bob Cobbing

Sonic Icons

London, UK: Writers Forum Press, 1970

62 pp., 20.5 x 25.5 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

Sonic Icons is the 9th publication from Writers Forum Press, a group that began meeting in 1952 and continues today, long after the death of Bob Cobbing, its founder. Concerned with the "limits of poetry", the group began publishing in the early sixties. Initially it self-published members writing and later would also publish work by John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, P.J. O'Rourke, Maggie O'Sullivan, Brion Gysin and many others. 

Sonic Icons  is a hand-made collection of Cobbing’s typewriter poems, printed on a variety of coloured papers, with a rubber-stamped cover. The book is considered a landmark in Cobbing's work, but also in visual poetry in general - a moment when concrete poetry gestured towards the performative sound poetry. 

The yellow-page poem Beethoven Today, above, is reprinted in the 2015 book BOOOOOK: The Life and Work of Bob Cobbing. 

Already scarce -I’ve never seen an image of another copy - the provenance of this one makes it particularly noteworthy - it is signed and dedicated by Cobbing to bpNichol, whose name he misspells:  “For Barry, greetings from Bob, 2 Nov 1970”. 

"Bob Cobbing is a senior and major exponent of the international concrete poetry movement in Great Britain. What is immediately impressive about his large body of work, in comparison with that of other poets in the field, is its range, and the published texts, which are freestanding visual poems, are also scores for vocal performance as sound poems. One of Cobbing's titles, Sonic Icons, stresses the interdependence of the two sides of his work through its appropriate anagram. His division of labor between self-publishing and performance ensures the unity of a creative project of great importance, yet his quest for new materials, techniques, and processes remains undiminished in energy and innovation."

- Robert Sheppard

"The publication of Sonic Icons in 1970 signalled a level of sophistication that was to become a trademark of Cobbing's visual and sound poetry from that point onwards. It was another pivotal moment for Cobbing's art."

- Mark Anthony Jackson

"I centre that in Sonic Icons, but one could place it in several other titles—in this case we have the intermediate stages resulting from new properties that Cobbing’s work accreted—for example, the idea of the graphical being readable into utterance; the idea of text on the page as being a landscape."

- Lawrence Upton

"Owning the means of production (the office duplicator, the photocopier) meant that Cobbing could conflate the processes of writing, design and printing. Performing regularly meant that he could heal the split in concrete poetry between those who presented silent icons, most famously Ian Hamilton Finlay, and those who developed the art of pure sound, such as Henri Chopin. Cobbing's anagrammatic title Sonic Icons was emblematic.

[...]

Between 1963 and 2002 Writers' Forum published more than 1,000 pamphlets and books, many of them his own work, but he was also generous as a publisher to younger writers, such as Lee Harwood and Maggie O'Sullivan. He issued texts by John Cage and Allen Ginsberg, and by fellow concrete poets, such Frenchman Pierre Garnier and Italian Arrigo Lora-Totino, both of whom were guests at the workshop in the 1990s."

- The Guardian

Davi Det Hompson | Bound & Unbound, New York, September 21 – October 26, 1991

Davi Det Hompson

Bound & Unbound, New York, September 21 – October 26, 1991

New York City, USA: Bound & Unbound, 1991

[10] pp., 27.7 x 10.6 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

An exhibition catalogue for a 1991 show at Barbara Moore’s Bound and Unbound, produced in the style of the artist’s own publications. 

In the mid to late seventies, Hompson produced over twenty such titles, such as You Know It Has To Be A Hairpiece, Some People Have Funny Ideas and I Would Recommend…. These featured statements and pithy anecdotes such as  

 “A university art instructor, after reading a showing of my writings, lit his pipe and said, ‘Please tell me. Do you think I should continue to paint?’” 

and

“When I was a kid my vision deteriorated so rapidly that I practiced walking with my eyes shut.” 

The cover graphic was also produced as a signed print, titled Sure, Sure, which can still be found at Printed Matter for $30 US, here. 

Art Journal | Vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer 1982)

Art Journal

Vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer 1982)

New York City, USA:  College Art Association of America, Inc., 1982

184 pp., 27.7 x 21.5 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Guest edited by Clive Phillpot, the Summer 1982 issue of Art Journal features a cover by Davi Det Hompson that reads “You should see the pages I’ve been typing. You should see the pages I’ve ben typing”. 

It also includes Kangaroo? (Some Songs byArt & Language and the Red Crayola), Why Write? by Daniel Buren, Color/Language Studies 1973-82 by lain Baxter, Extracts from Personhood's Self-Cancellation by Henry Flynt, Notes from Art by Lawrence Weiner, The Definitive/ist Manifesto by the Guerilla Art Action Group, and contributions by Ben Vautier, Les Levine, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and others. 

The periodical is available from Specific Object, for $75 US, here. 

"The best example I have found, post-XTC, benefits from an additional measure of ambiguity. Go 2’s visual rigour links it to the text-based conceptual art of its day and FitzGerald’s cover has a similarly exacting air. Arriving four years after Go 2 [see previous post], an issue of Art Journal devoted to ‘Words and Wordworks’ takes textual self-reflexiveness a step further by printing the same cover line – ‘You should see the pages I’ve been typing ’ – twice between scratchy rules. Davi Det Hompson’s blown-up, ink-splodged letters clatter with resonance. The Fluxus artist and concrete poet’s work can be found inside the issue. I rarely say it, but here less is more."

- Rick Poynor, Eye no. 104 vol. 26, 2023

XTC | Go 2

Hipgnosis was a London-based design group best known for creating album cover artwork for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Paul McCartney & Wings, Peter Gabriel, and countless other rock bands and performers. The group consisted primarily of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, who were later joined by Peter Christopherson. Also known as Sleazy, Christopherson was a founding member of Throbbing Gristle, and also performed with their offshoot band Psychic TV and Coil. 

Hipgnosis produced celebrated album graphics for many classic rock classics, including Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Houses of the Holy, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. These are regularly featured in books about album cover design, but the only title to cross over into artist designed album cover books is Go 2, by British band XTC. 

Hearing that Brian Eno was a fan of their 1978 debut, the group approached him to produce their follow-up. He refused, convinced they were not in need of a producer. The record label disagreed and hired John Leckie. 

Also released in 1978, Go 2 was issued in a stark black cover with white typewriter text satirizing music world marketing. Designed and executed by Hipgnosis, the text consists of an essay by Thorgerson about how album covers are used to attract potential buyers of the album. It is not dissimilar to the cover for Michael Snow’s 1975 LP Music For Piano, Whistling, Microphone and Tape Recorder [below, bottom].*

The text reads: 

This is a RECORD COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the record cover. The DESIGN is to help SELL the record. We hope to draw your attention to it and encourage you to pick it up.

When you have done that maybe you’ll be persuaded to listen to the music – in this case XTC’s Go 2 album. Then we want you to BUY it. The idea being that the more of you that buy this record the more money Virgin Records, the manager Ian Reid and XTC themselves will make. To the aforementioned this is known as PLEASURE. A good cover DESIGN is one that attracts more buyers and gives more pleasure. This writing is trying to pull you in much like an eye-catching picture. It is designed to get you to READ IT. This is called luring the VICTIM, and you are the VICTIM. But if you have a free mind you should STOP READING NOW! because all we are attempting to do is to get you to read. Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you indeed stop you’ll be doing what we tell you, and if you read on you’ll be doing what we’ve wanted all along. And the more you read on the more you’re falling for this simple device of telling you exactly how a good commercial design works. They’re TRICKS and this is the worst TRICK of all since it’s describing the TRICK whilst trying to TRICK you, and if you’ve read this far then you’re TRICKED but you wouldn’t have known this unless you’d read this far. At least we’re telling you directly instead of seducing you with a beautiful or haunting visual that may never tell you. We’re letting you know that you ought to buy this record because in essence it’s a PRODUCT and PRODUCTS are to be consumed and you are a consumer and this is a good PRODUCT. We could have written the band’s name in special lettering so that it stood out and you’d see it before you’d read any of this writing and possibly have bought it anyway. What we are really suggesting is that you are FOOLISH to buy or not buy an album merely as a consequence of the design on its cover. This is a con because if you agree then you’ll probably like this writing – which is the cover design – and hence the album inside. But we’ve just warned you against that. The con is a con. A good cover design could be considered as one that gets you to buy the record, but that never actually happens to YOU because YOU know it’s just a design for the cover. And this is the RECORD COVER.

The back cover of the LP continues the conceit:

This is the back of a RECORD COVER.  Catalogue No. V2108. This writing is the DESIGN on the back of the cover.  This design is not like that on the FRONT.  Its aim is to impart information about the RECORD and the GATEFOLD INSERT within rather than trying to sell it by being impactful or clever or any of those things.  We have kept it in the same style so that the entire package has a sense of IDENTITY which-ever way you see it.  The record is by XTC.  This is their second album.  We won’t attempt to describe their music because all you have to do is play it and you can describe it for yourself.  XTC is made up of Andy Partridge, Barry Andrews, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers.  We have shown photos of them below because this is regarded as commer-cially sensible and helpful in creating their image.  And if you’re curious at all you might find it interesting to see what the musicians actually look like.  And there are more pictures and words on the very colourful insert which you can only see if you buy the whole thing.

Many people think it helpful and useful to know some details about the songs on the record , so here they are:-

1. Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!) 

2. Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)

3. Buzzcity Talking

4. Crowded Room

5. The Rhythm

6. Red

7. Beatown

8. Lfe is Good in the Greenhouse

9. Jumping in Gomorrah

10. My Weapon

11. Super-Tuff

12. I am the Audience. 

You may also be interested to know that the record was produced and Engineered by John Leckie with assistant engineers Haydn Bendall and Pete James at Abbey Road, also, Andy Llewelyn and Jess Sutcliffe at Matrix and that Barry’s Roots photos were by Dave Eagle. We have to repeat the catalogue number on the insert for bureaucratic reasons and here it is V2108. Lastly we would like to make it clear that this is a product of Virgin Records Limited, partly because they wanted us to and partly because it is a legal necessity. Virgin Records’ head office is located at Vernon Yard,Portobello Road, London W.11. and is (P) Virgin Records

As does the vinyl label, at least in earlier pressings: 

This is a LABEL. This writing is known as the LABEL COPY, It is put on the label so you know WHICH side is WHICH. It's also put on for COPYRIGHT reasons. Normally it is made as LEGIBLE as possible, but in this case we are trying to maintain a DESIGN CONTINUITY in the

packaging and advertising material. This is often regarded as an efficient way to PROMOTE the IMAGE of the band and hence INCREASE album sales. This is SIDE ONE of XTC'S Go 2 album and the songs are: [...] For BUREAUCRATIC reasons we must include the catalogue numbers

JARAC VIP-6928 and VIP-6928-A. and for LEGAL reasons the copyright signs P 1978 Virgin Records Ltd. and C 1978 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd. This record is STEREO but the label is mono.

Like the 1986 Public Image Ltd album Album (or Cassette, Compact Disc, and, eventually, mp3), the text for Go 2 is altered to reflect the format of the cassette and CD [see below]. In France, the label decided on a more traditional cover portrait of the band [below, top].

XTC continued with inventive album covers, including Nonsuch from 1992, which featured an illustration etched directly onto the plastic CD case, and it’s follow-up seven years later, Apple Venus Volume 1, which sported a holographic cover image of a peacock feather that resembled an uvula. 

Ursula Block featured Go 2 in her landmark exhibition and catalogue Broken Music [see earlier post, here]. 

* Another example that predates Go 2 is the penguin edition of Terry Southern’s Flash and Filigree and The Magic Christian. The double-novel is designed  by John Sewell, who boldly includes the publisher’s brief atop the cover illustration:

Comments on wording: Emphasize author. Satirical author of Dr Strangelove and Candy.

Audience level: Sophisticated and middlebrow

Treatment: Could we have a non-pictorial cover.

Tyree Callahan | The Chromatic Typewriter

“The idea for The Chromatic Typewriter came about one day in the studio as I was struggling along with a watercolour. I had an old Olivetti typewriter laying around and I thought to add some text to the watercolour. I rolled the watercolour into the carriage and started typing and that's when the inspiration struck. I knew that an older typewriter would be more ideal for the final version of the project, largely because of the design-sense the old manufacturers had. They built those machines to last. This machine must weigh thirty pounds! I have an entirely new appreciation for typewriters now. You can Google a handful of online typewriter museums to get a sense of their beauty. In fact, looking on the virtual typewriter museums made me realize that the satiny/eggshell finish on my machine wasn't really supposed to be there. A lot of the museum pieces have a beautiful gloss. That's when I learned all about about nicotine tar.

The piece was intended to be purely conceptual, but I do have a confession: as I was applying paint to the keys I could not resist trying it out. This led to a discovery, albeit one impeded and limited by the machine itself. Were there a more practical way to re-apply paint to the keys, it would make some very interesting and fantastic art. The way typewriters are designed, of course, leaves a bit of white space between the characters, to keep the alphabet of one's thoughts from stacking up. In this case, however, the typing of colors left a bit of white space between each color, and the effect would be quite amazing. Sort of like a blocky pointillism.”

- Tyree Callahan

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber | Typing

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber

Typing 

Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2012

21.59 x 27.94 cm.

Open edition, each unique, signed by the artists

Unable to decide (and because they were priced at only fifty dollars) we bought three of these excellent typed works, over a decade ago. Now, if I had to pick a favourite, it’d be this one: 

        Day 656, 

        I still haven’t worked up the courage to go outside. 

        Maybe tomorrow? 

It’a perched on a ledge right by the side door to our house, almost as a warning. During the Covid years, it took on a particularly strong resonance. 

I’d be surprised if any remained, but other examples can be seen at the Paul + Wendy website, here.