artists' books graphic design visual art visual poetry

"I consider questions of authorship and the nature of poetics - at the most basic level of linguistic materiality as its condition of possibility - to be fundamental to my work," says Emily McVarish. Her poem-object Thick as Walls uses the physical, almost sculptural properties of letterpress printing to create a formal pattern of language. McVarish generates her texts in concert with their formal arrangement on the page and through the space of the book, forging an organic relationship between appearance and content.

Emily McVarish Thick as Walls date letterpress scroll in metal, plexiglass and bakelite case 36 1/4" x 12 7/8" x 2 1/4" collection The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry

Neuberger Museum of Art 20 September 1998 - 31 January 1999