I just received my copy of this book 'No ideas, but in things.' I met one of the authors at the Nexus Poetry class in Medium art store in Leeds and he spoke to me about the publication he is involved in and gave me examples of books to look at.
This book caught my eye, it is a book consisting of a list of technically nonsense series of words that came together through a non-connotiational word tennis match on the end of any text message they would send each other. By placing each word together they have started to create sayings from non matching words, a bit like Douglas Adams 'The meaning of Liff' book that finds names of places in the UK that don't have a meaning attached to them and places them with common things or happenings in life that currently don't have a name for it. Together creating a dictionary of nonsense, that makes sense.
I particularly like how amusing this book is and how the content comes together to form what feels like a poem, a list style one at that. This could be to do with the layout of the book, with each item on the centre of the page listing down. The idea and playful use of chance then placed into a book gives it another element, adds to the story and directs the reading a little in how to view these series of words. Alongside this book comes a performance element where a spoken word like reading is created as the two authors bounce these words to each other like a game of word tennis.
I'm interested in how experimental word books like this come about and how once they are printed as a book they don't just remain to be read in silence or for ones own reading experience, they open up options to perform and create something new, much like the book is a set of instructions and each reader interprets these words differently.
