Appendices, Illustrations & Notes

by Mónica de la Torre

This surreal and funny artist's book is a collaboration between conceptual artist Terence Gower and writer Monica de la Torre, who have created an anthology of meaningless book marketing blurbs, reviews of dubious exhibitions, evil-spirited notes by editors rejecting manuscripts, and obsessional letters addressed to a psychiatrist. Presented as an appendix of ancillary material to a fictitious book, the texts take referentiality to a level of Borgesian absurdity. The humor is dry and understated, and it is only after rereading these pieces that the uncanny thread uniting these seemingly found and disjointed fragments becomes apparent. For anyone whose day-to-day encounters with discourse include texts riddled with jargon and psychoanalytical babble. Appendices, Illustrations & Notes offers a homeopathic antidote of sweet revenge on the slayers of language.

64 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Mónica 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.