This brochure, one of 210, contains the first 1434 words of Georg Buchner’s Lenz (C.R. Mueller translation) justified and hand-set according to the artist’s specifications. Its 16 pages (8 leaves, 4 sheets) are those of the first 21 interfolded 16 page signatures bound together into a book and issued in a strictly limited edition of 10. Each 336 page book comprises a first page and 83 subsequent 4 page narrative cycles: a continuous sequence of loop-like repetitions broken only by a blank leaf constituting - with the leaf bearing with first page of text - the outermost enfoldment of the first signature.
Printed by Giampa Typographer. Bound by Charlotte Bagshawe. Cloth cover with slipcase.
“At every turn in Graham’s work, he creates a form of intervention.” (Hazleton)
Lenz is one of several works of textual intervention by Graham. In Lenz, Graham creates a narrative loop comprising 4 pages of Buchner’s “novella-fragment” of the same name. (Turner) The original work, published in 1938 a year after Buchner’s death, “is the story of a young artist falling into despair and madness.” (Turner)
In Graham’s version, after the first 5 pages of the story - ending in “into the valley through” - he loops back to page 2 - starting with “the forest”. This 4 page loop continues, mirroring the dizzying confusion of Lenz the character, condemning him to wander “through the forest” in perpetuity.
Binding / texture
Read more about Lenz from Arni Runar Haraldsson here
Other textual interventions by Graham in the collection:
Dr. No
Freud Supplement (170a-170d)
Works Cited
Hazelton, Claire. “Rodney Graham.” Aesthetica Magazine, https://aestheticamagazine.com/rodney-graham/.
Turner, Edwin. “The Never-Ending Torture of Unrest: Georg Büchner's Lenz Reviewed.” Biblioklept, 14 June 2013, https://biblioklept.org/2013/06/13/the-never-ending-torture-of-unrest-georg-buchners-lenz-reviewed/.
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