PAPER HORSES edition
PAPER HORSES chapbook (left)
paper horses (edition)
A spare meditation on death and transformation, PAPER HORSES tracks a progression from chaos and dissolution into release and exaltation. Cryptic and oneiric, the original poems in the edition are printed on Chinese joss paper—traditionally burned as an offering to ancestors—interspersed with Bible paper, its weightless opacity signaling a liberation from materiality. Designed to resemble an oversized matchbox edged with strike paper, the book’s textured matte black slipcover recalls crape fabric, ubiquitous in Victorian mourning attire. In stark contrast, a bright white tray inside holds the silver joss pages and loose matches, an invitation to sacrifice the words in flames.
Editions Vaché, 2022. Edition of 50. Price: $200.
paper horses (chapbook)
The chapbook, printed on 100% cotton paper and bound in textured black unryu paper, has an embossed cover, hand-sewn signatures and joss paper front and back endpapers.
Edition of 50. Price: $50.
Please contact me to purchase the edition or chapbook.
THE BEE VOLUME Book (with imposter bee) was designed to contain the BEE VOLUME texts for performance.
THE BEE VOLUME
"THE BEE VOLUME" is Volume III in THE FUNK & WAG FROM A TO Z. From 2011 to 2012, artist Mel Chin extracted all of the images from a 25-volume set of Funk & Wagnall’s Universal Standard Encyclopedia (circa 1953–56) and began visually re-editing. Over 500 black-and-white collages are accompanied by 25 poems, one per encyclopedia volume, commissioned by Chin and author Nick Flynn specifically for this publication. Published by The Menil Collection, Houston, TX.
In response to Chin’s work, I reconfigured sections of encyclopedia text on the images used in the collages to create a cycle of poems, one for each collage.
SPIRIT LABYRINTH
Printed in photoluminescent ink, SPIRIT LABYRINTH appears and disappears as lights in the room darken and brighten. The convoluted text echoes Pennsylvania Dutch illuminated documents called Frakturs, some of which were aligned in different directions and presented as Spiritual Labyrinths. It also calls to mind the short, cryptic lines of spells, occasionally written in graphic formats like the ancient SATOR square.
LURID DREAMS IN 5 DAYS
LURID DREAMS IN 5 DAYS reconfigures circa 1970s alarm clocks to contain original poems which cycle in one, five or ten minutes. The collection forms a book reflecting on sleep, death and the unconscious.
LURID DREAMS IN 5 DAYS detail: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE VOID clock
CHANCE BOOKS
CHANCE BOOKS is a collection of original poems in the form of a hand-made functioning game board. The design of the board utilizes an archetypal circle-in-square motif divided vertically into halves—The Book of Depletion and The Book of Accumulation. The poems may be read clockwise or in the order dictated by spinning the spinner. However, the spinner is double-ended, indicating an inseparable connection between the processes of accumulation and depletion. Published in PN Review, Manchester, England.
COFFIN TEXTS
Bound with wooden slats, nails and leather, the pages of COFFIN TEXTS are printed on newsprint which will gradually yellow and decay. The short poems speak of an other time of disintegration that precedes rebirth. Translated into Russian by Kanat Omar.
Video in collaboration with Dame Darcy
contorted poetry
A performance of bodily contortions performed while reciting original poetry.
reptile flowerngs
Surrealism. Published by Editions Vaché.