argumentstellen was conceived just one year after wit weiss (a new version of the white book) and permutierbarer text [but was published in 2003 - CS]. it is a direct result of his recent reading of tractatus. this large format book wherein a minuscule black dot always appears in a different location on the vast blank space of the page, does not treat language as such, but the way in which situation in the space (which is an attribute of all existing things, natural or human) implies a unique point of view each time, a never identical relation to the connection between the things that make up the world. indirectly, however, language is involved to the extent that it is powerless to say that which is never the same. this book visually translates (and illustrates) one of wittgenstein's propositions (2.0131), quoted on the last page: "a spatial object must be situated in infinite space. (a spatial point is an argument-place)." [31] it foreshadows the series of works on the experience of change and the link between "chance and change" that herman de vries explicitly formulates for the first time in 1970 during his long trip to bombay and the seychelles, and during which he becomes fully aware of it. [32]
argumentstellen : citation de ludwig wittgenstein frac bretagne : châteaugiron / editions incertain sens : rennes 2003
48 p. ; 29.7 × 21 cm.; edition 1250
concept developed in 1968.
[les livres et les publications 96]
text
notes
31. the english translation of tractatus used in this essay is taken from tractatus logico-philosophicus, translated by d.f. pears & b.f. mcguinness, london and henley: routledge & kegan paul, l96l.
Passage from Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, 'beyond language', in herman de vries. les livres & les publications : catalogue raisonné (centre des livres d'artistes/pays-paysage : saint-yrieix-la-perche 2005) 38.