The Anarchivist

by Geof Huth

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. Art. History. This volume assembles essays on the practice of archives by the archivist and experimental poet Geof Huth, along with his color photographs of ancient records on parchment and distressed paper. Huth reflects on the interplay between history, archives, and memory--on how we imagine facts and truth into being. In the end, the book is concerned with how we produce knowledge via the stories told through those records we have determined to keep.

Genres: Nonfiction

145 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2020

About the author

Geof Huth has lived in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and North and South America, all the while using language for his own purposes. His interest in language turned him into a poet, a visual poet, and a thinker on words. He works words in many media: condensation, crayon, frost, object, paint, pen, pencil, pixel, pollen, sound, type, and video. He writes almost daily on visual poetry and related matters at his blog, dbqp: visualizing poetics http://dbqp.blogspot.com.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geof Huth has put together a series of profoundly personal, yet broadly accessible essays regarding the archival profession, as well as its philosophies and practices. He brings a storyteller’s sensibility to these essays that are deeply rooted in archival history and theory, while challenging those same archival theories and our presumptions of them. Having known, collaborated and caroused with Geof for nearly two decades, his words are carefully chosen, not to be pedantic, but to be eloquently explanatory and richly accessible. This slim volume, that delivers insight and wisdom throughout the more than twenty essays, not only provides for engaging reading by those of us in the profession, but should be on the reading list of all would-be archivists.

[Albert]

I was going to write some long, thoughtful review after reading this during sleepless nights with a (now) 4-month old, but I'll stick to what's top of my sleep-deprived mind. I have a philosophy background, write code for a museum/library by day, and prefer to spend a good deal of my time reading poetry. While archives are not necessarily within my purview, they do exist in my periphery, and I've even dealt with them directly in professional and personal capacities. Given that background, I found these essays immensely interesting as a non-archivist. I have met Geof personally once years ago through the interest of poetry so that also added some intrigue for me to get to know him further, but I would have found his writing compelling as a complete stranger. The way he writes about his profession touches on so many larger questions that we all share that it's worth diving into all of these essays.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this journey into the work and concerns of an archivist. Fine photos are evocative of much that is written and suggested.