7th Jun, 2019 11:30 GMT/BST

Books, Maps & Ephemera

 
Lot 7
 

7

DSH [Dom Sylvester Houédard] begin again a book of reflections & reversals. Banks, Brampton,...

DSH [Dom Sylvester Houédard]
begin again a book of reflections & reversals. Banks, Brampton, Cumbria: LYC museum & gallery, [1975]. Square 8vo, org. wrappers; pp. [7], blank, [3], [3 (blank)] [text], 3 plates, 8 pockets with loosely inserted art, [2 (imprint, blank)] with loosely inserted image on card and prospectus for LYC [Li Yuan-Chia]. Limited edition, no. 34 of 500.
Houédard was a Benedictine monk, poet and theologian in the tradition of the greatest of medieval mystics. He was literary editor of the Jerusalem Bible and a dedicated scholar of religion, writing commentaries on Meister Eckhart and calling for a 'wider ecumenism'. He perceived the pursuit of the Truth of God as requiring a full engagement with Eastern traditions and Islamic thought. He was also an early and enthusiastic proponent of concrete poetry in Britain, exploring its links to cybernetics, Wittgensteinian linguistics and mystical truths. In his poetry, he sought to free text from its strict horizontal emplacement in order to find the Truth within words. The elements of this book seek the reader's physical as well as mental engagement, requiring manipulation to show their full depth. He wanted to push the experiencer to the moment when a word transformed, creating a new way to see - in this work alone MIND and ACHE become analogous simply looking in a different direction. DSH, as he signed himself, worked in a wide variety of media, but it was for his typographical work (especially the early 'typestracts') that he is most remembered.

The Lisson Gallery suggested in the release for their 2018 exhibition of his work, that his time as an administrative clerk with British Military Intelligence 'may point to a possible origin of his interest in the subversive use of the typewriter. Finding in its functions the possibility to visualize language in a manner that relieved words of their bureaucratic function, Houédard constructed a pictorial plane and shaped their visual emergence.' Certainly, his early work as a champion of the form used the typewriter in strange and alluring ways, creating visual blocks in which the text was secondary (though critical) to the ultimate experience of meaning. Whilst comparisons to Dadaism are perhaps inevitable, Houédard preferred to see his works as transformative, moving the audience towards a better understanding, rather than destructive and seeking only to highlight absurd meaninglessness. His texts were to be used, not disposed of, recalling talismans and medals inscribed with sacred words.

Sold for £150
Estimated at £200 - £300


 

. A little edgewear and marking to covers, internally clean,

 


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Auction: Books, Maps & Ephemera, 7th Jun, 2019

Books, Maps & Ephemera

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