Scope and Contents

In the first section, the poetry is set into four vertical columns interspersed with calligraphic drawings and text. In the second part, the handwritten text is freer and more inventive and is combined with drawings of hairy creatures, Egyptian figures and other oddities. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

An abstract form is filled with black ink letters and abstract markings typical of Basinski's style. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Wikepedia: "In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by him into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. In this state, they would lose all self-control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and ritualistically hunt down and tear to pieces animals "” and, in myth at least, sometimes men and children "” devouring the raw flesh. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped by a cluster of leaves; they would weave ivy-wreaths around their heads, and often handle or wear snakes." According to the Basinski's inscription on the verso of the drawing, "the Maenads had ladder like tattoes groves on their arms And I...

Scope and Contents

This drawing on irregularly shaped cardboard, consists of sections of multi-colored calligraphic texts, found, painted texts and handcolored images. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

Howe's poetry is a re-interpretation of the sounds of the verses by Emily Dickinson. He states in his afterward that he not only intended to "translate Emily Dickinson from her English to mine, but also to transform a reader's sense of the self presented in her poems." The cover designs were done by Michael Basinski. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.