Kern

by Derek Beaulieu

Technology has a lifespan, and only once it has passed from usefulness in a larger economic system does it move into an artistic one. Letraset was more ubiquitous in terms of concrete poetry in the 1970s and 80s when its availability was more prevalent, however it failed to gain a larger foothold in the poetic community because of its cost (which was often over $20 per sheet). Once letraset dropped in price—which was brought about by the increased use of computers in the graphic design and drafting areas—it then had larger use in poetic circles. Now, it is rarely found in stores, and is used mostly is novelty fonts for scrap-booking and hobbyists. The last store I was able to find letraset in bulk sold mostly to model airplane builders who required smaller dry-transfer typefaces in order to correctly label scratch-built models. Its use is become more and more hermetic.

Genres: Poetry

28 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2014

About the author

From wikipedia:

Derek Alexander Beaulieu (born 1973) is a Canadian poet, publisher and anthologist.
Beaulieu studied contemporary Canadian poetics at the University of Calgary. His work has appeared internationally in small press publications, magazines, and in visual art galleries. He has lectured on small press politics, arts funding and literary community in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Iceland.
He works extensively around issues of community and poetics, and along those lines has edited (or co-edited) the magazines filling Station (1998–2001, 2004–present), dANDelion (2001–2004), and endNote (2000–2001).
He founded housepress in 1997 from which he published small editions of poetry, prose and critical work until 2004. The housepress fonds are now located at Simon Fraser University. In 2005 he founded the small press no press.
In 2005 he co-edited Shift & Switch: new Canadian poetry with Angela Rawlings and Jason Christie, a controversial anthology of radical new poetry which has been reviewed internationally.
Beaulieu has shifted his focus in recent years to conceptual fiction, specifically visual translations/rewritings. His book Flatland consists of visual patterns based on the typography of Edwin Abbott Abbott's classic novel Flatland and his book Local Colour is a series of colour blocks based on the original text of Paul Auster's novella Ghosts.
How to Write, a collection of conceptual prose, was published by Talonbooks in 2010.
Beaulieu lives in Calgary, Alberta.