Design by John Furnival. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The poem was composed by Bann and the print was designed by Cant. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Letter concerns S. Bann's gift to E. Gomringer of four cards of his work which are also held by the Sackner Archive. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Bann discusses Furnival organizing transportation of "Clyne" constructions, vowel screens, three columns, Ed Wright's "Four Sails" glass, "Ajar" wooden construction, "Ark/Arc" in plastic...[and] column with "Wave/Wave" to Nottingham, and the possibility of using Mayer's "Ampersands" for a wall or outdoor display. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Letter concerns setting up, transporting and caring for Furnival's work at the first Brighton Festival as well as asking for an indication of the arrangement of Furnival's panels and whether Houedard could associate with the project. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Bann reports damage to the screen of Furnival's installation at the Brighton Festival. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Letter discusses catalogue and guide for the Brighton Festival exhibition; asks whether Furnival is in possession of "Arc/Ark" piece and whether Furnival's "Ajar" piece is "still in an exhibition-worthy state." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Bann thanks Furnival for typographical material and requests use of two designs in the Alan Ross anthology. Bann asks that Furnival consider an outdoor rather than an indoor site for his installation at the Brighton Festival. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The essay written by Stephen Bann on the back inside folder explains the metaphor of grouping designs of hulls of sailing ships like sea shells in a display case. Proctor is a ship designer and Costley the artist who made this print. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Reprinted from Stereo Headphones No.5, 1972. The authors debunk the assertion of Stuart Mills who in Akros No.18, 1972 stated that the poem-poster was introduced by Ian-Hamilton Finlay. They go on to further describe the pioneers of Concrete Poetry in their opinion. Rebuttals to their conclusions by Stephan Bann and Henri Chopin are also published. Mentions that Ernest Fenellosa, who died in 1908, used the term 'concrete poetry' in an essay, 'The Chinese Character as a Medium for Poetry' in 1901. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

*WEB 1998. [Email]seamus.cooney@wmich.edu. My copy says it's published by Tarasque Press. Sackner: no identification of publisher on my copy of card but similar Bann cards were also published by Tarasque Press so that correction is accepted. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Stephan Bann provides an explanation of the poem in the accompanying leaflet as follows. Thermidor was the month in the French Revolutionary calendar when the summer heat was its most intense, and the grain at its ripest. It was also the month, in 1794, when Robespierre and his followers met their deaths at the guillotine. In the image of this poem, the abrupt cleavage of the word, THER MIDOR, and of the figured sheaf of flowers, suggest the termination of the revolution in its Jacobian sense. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This proposal for a revolutionary garden in Versailles was never carried out owing to a political perception in France that Finlay espoused pro-Nazi, anti-semitic views (this opinion is not shared by the Sackners). -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.