Body of Text

By David Ellingsen & Michael V. Smith

Body of Text is a collection of concrete poems made by marrying poetry with body-based performance art and documentary photography. Dressed in a full black bodysuit, Michael V. Smith is photographed by David Ellingsen in hundreds of poses which resemble Greco-Roman letters, Asian characters, hieroglyphs, or Rorschach ink blots. These are then arranged in book for, to a maximum of three images per page. In the same spirit of 'moving beyond language' as can be heard in the sound poetry of Chrisian Bok, the poems in Body of Text occupy a liminal space between poetry and visual art. The body is made word, is made 'site,' 'object' and 'subject.' The body is symbol.

Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: Literary Press Group 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1897388280
Product Dimensions: 8 x 4 x 0.5 inches