Established in late 1960s Vancouver as an offshoot of the experimental arts organization Intermedia Society, Intermedia Press was a meeting point for Vancouver poets, particularly those whose work was informed by the visual arts and vice versa. Over the years Intermedia Press published works by Ed Varney, Henry Rappaport, Carol Itter, Roy Kiyooka, and others. The organization participated in happenings and events led by the Society, including Thursday noon lunch/poetry readings at the Vancouver art gallery, as well as mail art projects such as "The Poem Company" - an anonymous 8-page magazine of poetry and visual art sent through the mail each week.
"Intermedia" as a term comes from Fluxus artist Dick Higgins, meaning hybrid forms, with book arts as an ideal form of intermedia because they could contain images, texts, and materials in ways that could be stretched, blended, and juxtaposed (Drucker 70). Two Intermedia Press publications from the Emily Carr Artists' Book Collection are fantastic examples of this: Edition, edited by Richard Hambleton, and plutonium missing by bill bissett.
The pages in Edition bleed into one another, overlap, end abruptly. There is text, and photography, and drawings. One mark appears to have been made by burning the page. Some pages appear designed to be torn out an turned into something else. As a whole, it feels like listening to a room full of conversations.
bill bissett's poetry resists the restrictive definition of concrete poetry, where form must convey literal meaning. Rather, the mutable visual element of his work (including drawing and typography) acts as a kind of synesthesia - a shifting together of language and image.
resources
Drucker, Johanna. The Century of Artists' Books. Granary Books, 2004.
Rappaport, Henry. “Giving the Sixties & Seventies a Good Rap-Paport.” BC Booklook, 23 June 2014, bcbooklook.com/2014/06/23/intermedia-remembered/.
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