Untitled (Texts): A Unique Portfolio of Prints by Heinz Gappmayr

Heinz Gappmayr

Published by Coracle Press / Ottenhausen Verlag, London / Aachen, 1985

About this Item

Book. Brown hardback folio (450 x 340 mm) with black fabric tie fastening and black border containing twenty eight black on white off-set prints (420 x 295 mm), all signed by the Austrian artist and poet Heinz Gappmayr in pencil on the verso. A unique set of prints assembled by Ottenhausen Verlag at the same time as the paperback Texts was also jointly published by Coracle and Ottenhausen Verlag, which reproduces many of the prints found in this one-off folio. The folio was published with a plan to exhibit the works in a show at Camberwell Coracle Gallery, and/or publish it as a portfolio edition, but these plans were never realised, and therefore this proto-type folio stands as not only a set of limited edition prints but also a manuscript and document of Concrete Poetry publishing/curatorial history. The prints are representative of Gappmayr's concrete and visual poetry oeuvre, which he theorizes in the essay 'Aspects of Visual Poetry' - an appendix in the book, Texts: 'As a phenomenon of communication, the script remains dependent on the unity of symbol and concept. In the visual poem this mutual dependency enables the concept poetically to take on dimensions and makes an identifications or differentiation between concept, symbol and space possible.' The scale of the prints compared to the small publication means that the spatial arrangement of the words and graphics are accentuated. Gappmayr's poetry combines elements of pure concrete with a conceptualist aesthetic. Condition: minor rubbing to outer folio (VG/NF); minor wear to outer cards which are purely there to protect inner contents and could be removed or replaced easily; all prints inside in near fine condition - clean and fresh - the occasional minor handling mark. Offered here together with: Heinz Gappmayr, Texts, Coracle Press / Ottenhausen Verlag, London / Aachen, 1985. 167 x 117 mm, 162 pp. Offset. Sewn paperback, with black on white printed cover, published in an edition of 1000 copies. Seller Inventory # 001772

Bibliographic Details

Title: Untitled (Texts): A Unique Portfolio of ...

Publisher: Coracle Press / Ottenhausen Verlag, London / Aachen

Publication Date: 1985

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine