19:4 Fall 1967

JOHN FURNIVAL

Les Tours de Babels changees en ponts

The Fall 1967 issue was called an “Anthology of Concretism” and included some of the world’s best-known creators of concrete poetry—notably Alain Arias-Misson (Spain), Carlo Belloli (Italy), Mary Ellen Solt (U.S.A.), and work adapted from the Noigandres group of Brazil; it was subsequently published as a book by Swallow Press. Eugene Wildman, who edited the collection, recently reflected on the effort of putting it together:

The culture is far more visually oriented now, but at the time Concretism was almost beyond subversive; no one had a clue how to approach it. When the issue was being put together, I could not get anyone on the staff to help, so intimidatingly different was the material. (There is change, and then there is change, I suppose.) After it was out, one reviewer complained that it did not contain even a single word. Naturally, the poems consisted of words, only they were now arranged to form images. For the record, it did not take Madison Avenue long to pick up on the design aspects of the work. So much for the counterculture Revolution.

While pondering the mysteries of Concretism, I would walk, lost in thought, through the Quadrangles past Court Theater, which was rehearsing Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. This happened so often that I saw the entire play, but in the most scrambled shape imaginable. It seemed to mirror my own difficulty exactly. Then one day I went by precisely when the judge, like Solomon, cuts through the arguments and awards the child to the woman who loves it rather than the one who would simply possess it. The solution suddenly struck me; I ran to the Review office and virtually in one shot put the issue together.

John Furnival’s work appeared in the issue. These pages are same-size details from “Les Tours de Babels changées en ponts” (named after a line from Apollinaire’s “Liens”). Furnival explains: “The work is a five-piece screen 6’6” by approximately 13’, in the collection of Richard Kostelanetz, and is hand-rendered. It is the second piece that I did that was entirely composed of words, the first being “The Fall of the Tower of Babel,” and it is the first screen that I ever did—I’ve done about ten since—they take a long time to do! It was first shown in the exhibition ‘Between Painting and Poetry, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1964.” Furnival is an artist and illustrator who splits his time between England and France. He is a frequent collaborator with Jonathan Williams and the Jargon Society.

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