Die Dichtkunst (the art of poetry or lyric poetry) is a partial appropriation of Hanne DarbovenÕs monumental Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983, with its scores of scored u's combined with Jacques LacanÕs observation that ÒThere has never been a you anywhere else than where one says you.Ó For once one truly says you: ÒI abolish myself.Ó The text-object is composed of 383 pages: two 3s together forming the 8, which is the sign for infinity. In the middle of the book there are 11 pages of us, a mirrored number, the number of the uniform binary, the single number of the twin. Two mirrors reflecting one another will reflect to infinity. For, as Darboven once quoted GŸnter Grass:"Heinrich SchŸtz, who had attended the debate as though absent, answered the question: For the sake of the written words, which poets alone had the power to write in accordance with the dictates of art. And also to wrest from helplessnessÑhe knew it wellÑa faint 'and yet.'"
Die Dichtkunst
