editions and publications

• 1967 :: permutierbarer text
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  permutierbarer text (1967)
  the first personal publication wherein language reappears was produced in 1967, the last year of herman de vries' membership in the zero group. it appeared in number 23 of the poster-journal of concrete poetry futura, edited by hansjörg mayer and is called permutierbarer text (permutable text). permuting, that is transposing words or letters on the space of the page is one of the favourite games of concrete poetry, the experimental poetry that herman de vries practiced after 1965. as an extension of geometric abstraction in painting (in which the zero group is involved) into the domain of titerature, concrete poetry demanded that poetry rid itself of description, narration and lyricism in favour of spatial poetry. this consists of disassembling language into formal non-semantic units in order to break the constraints of syntax and the linear structure of reading and in doing so allowing other possibilities, notably the visual. in permutierbarer text, however, it is not a question of suggesting a new configuration of signs and even less of giving shape to a defined image.
• once the journal is opened, it reveals isolated words whose translation into four languages form short lines, randomly scattered across the surface of the paper in all directions. the normal direction of reading, horizontally and from left to right, is but one possibility among many. this sheet is part of the series random objectivations which, when it was started in 1962, just after wit appeared, uses random procedures in the construction of non-figurative, non-subjective paintings. more precisely, this work is directly inspired by a series of paintings in 1966, wherein black stripes of equal length seem to be tossed across the canvas like sticks in a game of mikado. herman de vries describes the process of creating this piece on the back of the journal: the 43 words, chosen at random, are taken from seven books also chosen at random from his library. all the same, randomness plays its revealing part perfectly and the artist's main concerns emerge from the titles mentioned, dealing with aesthetics, self knowledge, the relationship of art to the sacred, visual perception, cybernetic theory, oriental thought and finally, anarchism.
• the methodical use of randomness as a means to creation is the element that irrefutably distinguishes this work from those by the concrete poets. they remove the semantic function of language but only to replace it with another function, this one figurative, no less constraining to the reader. herman de vries, on the contrary, uses randomness to liberate not only language but also reading: although the artist has already "permuted" this text, it remains, as the title indicates, completely "permutable" by the reader; for whom, for example, there is no given point of departure, no prescribed sequence, no centre, no spatial orientation to guide him. it is thus on open text, as opposed to "constellations" - dear to one of the main representatives of concrete poetry eugen gomringer, who borrows this word from le coup de dès (a throw of dice) by mallarmé -, systematically constructed, very determined and perfectly controlled by the concrete poets. randomness gives the reader freedom to go beyond not only the artist's intentions, but also his own automatic verbal constraints. on the back of the journal there is this encouragement addressed to the reader: "words / the basic elements of language / the general expression of human philosophy and best means of communication/are freed from normal, daily or specialized use / [...] combine them / associate them / be sad / sceptical / happy / bourgeois and new meanings to your life will grow in a few words/have a good time / and rest assured that this is a rational game / i have decided nothing for you / only you can give a content [...]" a liberated language is not an end in itself - it should be a liberator.
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