"Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara" by Isidore Isou

Like things in small packages, there is great charm with a mixture of surprise.  You look at it or read it, and it has a big affect on you.  Letterist Isidore Isou wrote an amusing as well as a touching aspect of the great DADA (and later Communist) poet Tristan Tzara.  "I had never attended a funeral in my life, and as I always consider death a failure, hope never to tend to another" is a pretty witty commentary on the nature of life going to the other side or stopping as welll as funeral practices.

As one can gather, DADA either became Surrealists or Communists who didn't like The Letterists, who didn't like The Stalinists who didn't like abstract art and therefore a tad suspicious of the Surrealists, Ex-DADAists, and without a doubt the Letterists.   And they all showed up for the funeral of Tristan Tzara.  Who, without a doubt, is one of the great humorists on this planet.  

An excellent little (24 pages) page booklet that is a keeper.  Again, things in small packages are usually exceptionally great.  One can get this gem at BlackScatBooks.com

Lettrisme, letterism, letrismo, poesia sonora

Gil J Wolman's "I Am Immortal and Alive" by Frederic Acquaviva

Remarkable find in my very own bookstore! Gil J. Wolman was a member of the Letterist International and an associate of the Situationist International -till Guy Debord decided to eliminate him from the group. According to this catalog no one is really sure why that happened. It seems like Wolman was liked by everyone - and that alone may have pissed Debord off!

Nevertheless, and beyond his social activities with various European 20th Century art movements, Wolman made some remarkable art. Mostly collages that he termed "Scotch (after the tape) Art and works with various forms of text. "I am Immortal and Alive" is a catalog to a show that is now taking place in Barcelona. If it is like this catalog, then the show has to be a real beauty as well as a document on a fascinating artist and his time and placement in contemporary art.