Dangerous Supplements
ick/Simon says that NICHOLODEON is more like a coral reef than a book because of all the additional poetic material that keeps accreting around its perimeters. I think that this is a quality that all "finished" works of art possess to some degree -- there are always vectors of deterritorialization leading off into unexpected places. In the case of the present effort, I chose to foreground and encourage it. Why not?
The other reason that the cluster of literary and artistic objects around NICHOLODEON is particularly thick has to do with the generosity of my friends. All were extremely supportive of this project in ways too numerous to mention. Many are artists and writers themselves, and participated actively in the collaborative process that produced this book. What follows are notes on, reproductions of, and links to, some of their contributions.
The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein by Marcel Duchamp
This is the only poem that Victor Coleman edited out of the version of NICHOLODEON that I gave him after the collapse of Coach House Press. I then gave it to Steve Cain for his Kitsch in Ink Press, which produced two versions of it (one for distribution at the book launch; the other was tipped in to the deluxe lettered copies of the book).
Angle of Mercury
I've explained the origins of the blue letter Ys elsewhere (just writing that sentence makes me feel like my literary sensibilities are stuck in the interzone between Sesame Street and a DC Comic, which probably isn't all that far from the truth).
The image of the hermaphrodite came from a collection of illuminations from alchemical manuscripts. There are two versions of the image: a "thin" one, which is more or less the way that I found it, and a "fat" one, which Rick/Simon produced in a moment of whimsy.
Saint Ickers
I tipped these images into selected copies of NICHOLODEON at the book launch (the lettered copies also contain some of them). The method was quasi-random; very few people have a full set in the proper locations (attention, pirates!).
These two images, which function as found illustrations for "Instructions for Disposal," are from the CIA Freedom Fighters' Manual, a charming little publication that was smuggled into Central and South American countries as part of the ongoing U.S. attempt to topple communist regimes.
I believe that it's also served as an inspiration to a whole generation of overeducated office temps at home as well.
This is the sigil from Georges Bataille's secret society, acephale, the smarter (but slightly creepier, in the way that grown adults who still play Dungeons & Dragons are creepy) alternative to Surrealism. It's kind of a stylistic complement to the "Angle of Mercury" hermaphrodite.
Like all lowerglyphs, the acephale serves as a kind of roadsign on the way to a place where consensual reality has a noticeably different flavour. See the Hyperglyphs page for a contemporary version.
Admission
by Christian Bök
Christian went through over $70.00 worth of nickels to find 27 that were minted in 1988. Now that's friendship. Or mania.
Anxiety of Influence: A Review of NICHOLODEON
by damian lopes
This was the first bit of ephemera that was a direct result of NICHOLODEON. It's a policy of damian's to only assess visual poetry through means of other visual poetry. When I suggested that this might not always be the best procedure, he presented me with an image of a mouth with a foot firmly wedged within it.
POET
with damian lopes
damian and I giggled our asses off the night we put this together. It makes a pretty good business card.
Educated Guess #7 (anecdotal lyric)
by RM Vaughan
Richard, who hosted my book launch, presented me with this, one of 27 copies printed for the occasion, just before publicly labeling me "The Irving Layton of concrete poetry." I'll forgive him for the latter because of the former (though it seems to me that Sin's nadir has plenty of bottom, at least in this case).
TRANSLATION:
"Abel the sinner lived desire for the skin of Claudio. He continued in permanent silence. Again the mirror lingered only a second."
"Ultimately, Sin's nadir had no bottom, he fled."
Nickel Linoleum
by Christian Bök
There are 27 different images in this piece, created by sliding a loose roll of nickels across a moving photocopier platen. All are fixed to an actual square of linoleum, one per lettered copy of the book. At some point damian and I are going to produce a poster of them all, but for now, there's always the animated version.
<nicholodeon></nicholodeon>: an ephemeral hyperglyph
by Lucas Mulder
Although this site was also distributed on disk with the deluxe lettered copies of the book, it was actually on the web before the first version of NICHOLODEON was online. Its design was a direct inspiration for version 2 of this website. These facts neatly demonstrate:
a) the relentless logic of the supplement
b) Lucas' superior design skills
c) all of the above
triptych
by Liz Phillips
These three boxes were a Valentine's Day present from Liz. I was speechless.
old bp
by Neil Hennessy
This animation is by Canada's greatest java-programming-concrete-poet.
another ASCII project: workers of the world slack off!
po box 657, station p, toronto, ontario m5s 2y4