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Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979
Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 is expansive anthology focused on concrete poetry written by women in the groundbreaking movement’s early history. It features 50 writers and artists from Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States selected by editors Alex Balgiu and Mónica de la Torre.
Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 takes as its point of departure Materializzazione del linguaggio—the groundbreaking exhibition of visual and concrete poetry by women curated by Italian feminist artist Mirella Bentivoglio for the Venice Biennale in 1978. Through this exhibition and others she curated, Bentivoglio traced constellations of women artists working at the intersection of the verbal and visual who sought to “reactivate the atrophied tools of communication” and liberate words from the conventions of genre, gender, and the strictures of the patriarchy and normative syntax.
The works in this volume evolved from previous manifestations of concrete poetry as defined in foundational manifestos by Öyvind Fahlström, Eugen Gomringer, and the Brazilian Noigandres Group. While some works are easily recognized as concrete poetry, as documented in canonical anthologies edited by Mary Ellen Solt and Emmett Williams in the late ’60s, it also features expansive, serial works that are overtly feminist and often trouble legibility. Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 revisits the figures in Bentivoglio’s orbit and includes works by women practicing in other milieus in the United States, Eastern Europe, and South America who were similarly concerned with activating the visual and sonic properties of language and experimenting with poetry’s spatial syntax.
Artists and writers include Lenora de Barros, Ana Bella Geiger, and Mira Schendel from Brazil; Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Liliana Landi, Anna Oberto, and Giovanna Sandri from Italy; Amanda Berenguer from Uruguay; Suzanne Bernard and Ilse Garnier from France; Blanca Calparsoro from Spain; Paula Claire and Jennifer Pike from the UK; Betty Danon from Turkey; Mirtha Dermisache from Argentina; Bohumila Grögerová from the Czech Republic; Ana Hatherly and Salette Tavares from Portugal; Madeline Gins, Mary Ellen Solt, Susan Howe, Liliane Lijn, and Rosmarie Waldrop from the US; Irma Blank and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt from Germany; Chima Sunada from Japan; and Katalin Ladik and Bogdanka Poznanović from the former Yugoslavia.
Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 takes as its point of departure Materializzazione del linguaggio—the groundbreaking exhibition of visual and concrete poetry by women curated by Italian feminist artist Mirella Bentivoglio for the Venice Biennale in 1978. Through this exhibition and others she curated, Bentivoglio traced constellations of women artists working at the intersection of the verbal and visual who sought to “reactivate the atrophied tools of communication” and liberate words from the conventions of genre, gender, and the strictures of the patriarchy and normative syntax.
The works in this volume evolved from previous manifestations of concrete poetry as defined in foundational manifestos by Öyvind Fahlström, Eugen Gomringer, and the Brazilian Noigandres Group. While some works are easily recognized as concrete poetry, as documented in canonical anthologies edited by Mary Ellen Solt and Emmett Williams in the late ’60s, it also features expansive, serial works that are overtly feminist and often trouble legibility. Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 revisits the figures in Bentivoglio’s orbit and includes works by women practicing in other milieus in the United States, Eastern Europe, and South America who were similarly concerned with activating the visual and sonic properties of language and experimenting with poetry’s spatial syntax.
Artists and writers include Lenora de Barros, Ana Bella Geiger, and Mira Schendel from Brazil; Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Liliana Landi, Anna Oberto, and Giovanna Sandri from Italy; Amanda Berenguer from Uruguay; Suzanne Bernard and Ilse Garnier from France; Blanca Calparsoro from Spain; Paula Claire and Jennifer Pike from the UK; Betty Danon from Turkey; Mirtha Dermisache from Argentina; Bohumila Grögerová from the Czech Republic; Ana Hatherly and Salette Tavares from Portugal; Madeline Gins, Mary Ellen Solt, Susan Howe, Liliane Lijn, and Rosmarie Waldrop from the US; Irma Blank and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt from Germany; Chima Sunada from Japan; and Katalin Ladik and Bogdanka Poznanović from the former Yugoslavia.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
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About the author
Mónica de la Torre
40 books22 followersMónica de la Torre is co-author of the book Appendices, Illustrations & Notes (Smart Art Press) with artist Terence Gower, and co-editor, with Michael Wiegers, of Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry (Copper Canyon Press). She edited and translated the volume Poems by Gerardo Deniz, published by Lost Roads and Taller Ditoria, and has translated numerous other Spanish-language poets. Born and raised in Mexico City, she moved to New York in 1993. She has been the poetry editor of The Brooklyn Rail since 2001 and is pursuing a PhD in Spanish Literature at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in journals including Art on Paper, BOMB, Bombay Gin, Boston Review, Chain, Circumference, Fence, Mandorla, Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, and Twentysix. Talk Shows is her first book of original poetry in English.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 19, 2021
this might have a bigger impact on my poetics than any other book i have ever read
October 18, 2020
Using the shapes of type itself to enhance or otherwise shape textual (non)meaning and effect, instances of “concrete poetry” have occurred in art and literature over several centuries. But during the early 1950s, its popularity exploded simultaneously in South America and Western Europe, and from there the rest of the world.
Most instances of 20th-century concrete poetry were based on exploiting the capabilities of a relatively inexpensive and common mechanical tool—the typewriter—viewed it in terms of its basic components and actions—inked ribbon struck onto paper by metal keys shaped as letters and punctuation—in the service of communication. Concrete poetry often uses symbols of sounds and silences to create the unsayable as image, and thereby bridge the gap between the vocable and the visual. By “unsayable,” I mean nobody’s declaiming these poems at the local slam because doing so is either impossible or irrelevant or, most likely, both.
Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 is a 480-glossy-paged, over-size anthology with examples and excerpts by women practitioners of the genre from every continent but Antarctica. (The print quality of this anthology is no doubt far lower in pulp count than the paper the original versions of these poem were printed on.) Few of the poems are explicitly feminist or political—most of the writers (like their male counterparts who got the attention) were exploring the boundaries of concrete poetry’s semantic capabilities and the content it best conveyed, but not necessarily as gender/patriarchy boundaries to be transcended.
The anthology includes translations (at the end), biographies, and an implied promise of a follow-up anthology. An excellent honor, acknowledgment, and introduction to concrete poetry in general, as well as the women in particular who developed that genre.
Most instances of 20th-century concrete poetry were based on exploiting the capabilities of a relatively inexpensive and common mechanical tool—the typewriter—viewed it in terms of its basic components and actions—inked ribbon struck onto paper by metal keys shaped as letters and punctuation—in the service of communication. Concrete poetry often uses symbols of sounds and silences to create the unsayable as image, and thereby bridge the gap between the vocable and the visual. By “unsayable,” I mean nobody’s declaiming these poems at the local slam because doing so is either impossible or irrelevant or, most likely, both.
Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 is a 480-glossy-paged, over-size anthology with examples and excerpts by women practitioners of the genre from every continent but Antarctica. (The print quality of this anthology is no doubt far lower in pulp count than the paper the original versions of these poem were printed on.) Few of the poems are explicitly feminist or political—most of the writers (like their male counterparts who got the attention) were exploring the boundaries of concrete poetry’s semantic capabilities and the content it best conveyed, but not necessarily as gender/patriarchy boundaries to be transcended.
The anthology includes translations (at the end), biographies, and an implied promise of a follow-up anthology. An excellent honor, acknowledgment, and introduction to concrete poetry in general, as well as the women in particular who developed that genre.
December 21, 2020
What an absolute treasure trove. I wasn’t too familiar with “concrete poetry” before coming across this collection, but wow this is the tip of an iceberg I can’t wait to explore further. If you’re a concrete novice like me, highly recommend getting introduced to this world through this published compilation.
March 16, 2021
Great companion to the classic concrete anthologies by Solt, Williams, & Wildman.
November 23, 2025
This may not be the definitive collection of women in concrete poetry, but the satisfyingly well-made physical book certainly feels so. It was for me a compelling entre into this world that marries two things i love (words / letters and visual composition) through distinctive voices.
February 11, 2022
Librazo, un must have
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March 2, 2025these are really really cool. would've loved a real copy but alas they are far too expensive. will be thinking about these for a while
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews