{"id":66667,"date":"2025-05-21T12:26:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=66667"},"modified":"2025-05-27T09:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T13:42:22","slug":"after-words-at-the-grolier-club-tells-of-a-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2025\/05\/after-words-at-the-grolier-club-tells-of-a-revolution.html","title":{"rendered":"‘After Words’ at The Grolier Club Tells of a Revolution<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If anybody had said to me that the shaggy “mimeo revolution” of little magazines begun in the 1960s would be the subject of an exhibition as elegant as this one, and in as venerable a setting<\/a>, I wouldn’t have believed it. During that period I played a small part in what was happening as the editor of a little mag myself. I thought we were participants in a rebellion more than a revolution. But the breadth and depth of it as captured these many years later by After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, Post-1960<\/em> is more than persuasive. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and small Presses (1960-2025). <\/em><\/font>Catalogue published by Granary Books<\/em><\/font>.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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‘After Words’ bannered at The Grolier Club.<\/em><\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cPoetry underwent a profound re-conception post-World War II, as poets experimented not only with techniques such as projective verse, but also with the verbal and visual qualities of poetic language. Known variously as visual, concrete, and sound poetry, these practices reached new heights of innovation in the 1960s and beyond sustained by the mimeograph revolution and the proliferation of small independent presses. [The exhibition] curated by Steve Clay and Grolier Club member M.C. Kinniburgh explores the decentering and re-imagining of language from the perspective of visual poetics, and the varieties of ways these ideas took published form. The exhibition presents a wide range of international works with approximately 150 publications.\u201d \u2014 Granary Books<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Click to enlarge this partial view of one of the nine vitrines in the exhibition.<\/a><\/em> <\/strong>Top from left:  Charles Plymell\u2019s large collage “Life Begins With Love” (1965); Michael McClure\u2019s “Love Lion Lioness” poster (1964).<\/em> <\/strong>From left: “Cut Up or Shut Up” cowritten by Jan Herman, Carl Weissner, and J\u00fcrgen Ploog (Agentzia, 1972); “Cut Up” edited by Carl Weissner (Melzer Verlag, 1969); “VDRSVP: The San Francisco EARTHQUAKE No. 5” (1969) edited by Jan Herman and Norman O. Mustill; “The Insect Trust Gazette No. 2” (1965) edited by Robert Basara, Leonard Belasco, Jed Irwin, and William Levy; “Klacto 23” (1967) edited by Carl Weissner.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The exhibition is on view through July 26, 2025. Admission is free. Several free events are scheduled between now and then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n