herman de vries - books and publications 1960

1969
1968
1967
1966
1965
1964
1963
1962
1961
1960

1968
de lijnen v68-161
edition integration : arnhem 1968
(44 × 31 cm)
edition 7, numbered.
[les livres et les publications 9]
vlakvolumen v 68-216
edition i : arnhem 1968
(32.8 × 32.8 cm)
edition 3.
[les livres et les publications 10]

1967
rationale strukturen. v67-77 7
[preface by siegfried maser]
edition hansjörg mayer : stuttgart 1967
(48 × 48 cm)
edition 40, signed and 26 numbered a-z.
[les livres et les publications 6]
wit weiss
[inleiding = einleitung] j.c. van schagen
edition hansjörg mayer : [stuttgart] 1967
250 p. (16 × 12 cm)
edition 500, numbered.
[les livres et les publications 7]

herman de vries : permutierbarer text
futura 23
edition hansjörg mayer : stuttgart 1967
1 fol. (48 x 64 cm, folded 24 × 16 cm)
edition 1200.
includes text '[eine biogra[p]hie ...]'.
[les livres et les publications 8]

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 [source: Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, 'beyond language', in herman de vries. les livres & les publications (saint-yrieix-la-perche 2005) 31].

1965
herman de vries
[text by] d.w. van krevelen
edition wolfgang hake : köln 1965
(40 × 40 cm)
edition 15, signed.
[les livres et les publications 5]

1962
wit
met een inleiding door j.c. van schagen
m.j. israel : arnhem 1962
[200] p. (20 × 21.5 cm)
1st edition 5, signed
[les livres et les publications 4]
The first version of wit was published in 1962 and had an edition of 5. The second version was published by Hansjörg Mayer in Stuttgart in 1967 in an edition of 500. The front and back were printed as well as the first page where there was an introduction by the poet J.C. van Schagen. But the following 250 pages were blank. The latest version is the most polished. The title and the names of the author, editor and preface author have been printed in a white band that surrounds the book, which is completely white this time. On the inside of the band, there are the words: "in this book, where all contradictions have been removed and the contents of which are suitable for everyone, where we have moved beyond all problems and where nothing is cut from reality or is unilateral, we can say that this is a positive contribution to the summary of the whole." In 2012 Zédélé Editions in Brest published a reprint of the 1980 edition.

1961
[wit is overdaad / blanc est surabondance / white is superabundance / weiss ist übermässig]
ed. by the author : Arnhem 1961
20 p. (13.6 × 10.7 cm)
2nd revised version issued in 120 copies (as was the first edition printed in 1960), numbered.
[les livres et les publications 3]

1960
manifest van de gecastreerde werkelijkheid
ed. by the author : Arnhem 1960
14 pages (25.2 × 16.3 cm)
edition 20.
[les livres et les publications 1]
[wit is overdaad]
ed. by the author : Arnhem 1960
20 p. (13.6 × 10.7 cm)
1st edition 120, numbered
[les livres et les publications 2]
the first book by herman de vries appeared in 1960. 'book' may be a big word for this small format booklet of a few sheets, bound with two staples and, surprisingly, without print. no title on the cover, it is blank too. on the colophon page only a few words are printed, in very pale ink and in four languages, like a poem: 'wit / wit is overdaad / blanc est surabondance / white is superabundance / weiss ist übermässig / wit / wit / wit is overdaad'. one might say that this book is at the same time an end and a beginning. it constitutes the end of the work of a scientist soon to renounce the study of nature and who has just announced this by renaming the offprints of a personal scientific publication 'manifest of castrated reality'. it also marks the final point of his parallel work as a painter, related to the abstract movement 'zero'. from 1956 herman de vries has been making monochrome paintings and from 1959, white paintings [source: Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, 'beyond language', in herman de vries. les livres & les publications (saint-yrieix-la-perche 2005) 29].