Edwin Schlossberg. Tidal Gestures | Word: Nerve

Tidal Gestures | Word: Nerve is the latest book in the LiberArs series, done in collaboration with the American artist and designer Edwin Schlossberg.

In this book, Schlossberg continues to explore the relationship between the content and context of words, juxtaposing two text-based graphic works in a single publication.

Word: Nerve gathers together words with extensive meanings from the Oxford English Dictionary, each creating a mood through the associations within them and between the words of each particular letter by extension. The resulting lists of words are evocative, and each viewer’s experience is enriched by isolating or comparing them.

In Tidal Gestures, Schlossberg is concerned with both the intellectual and aesthetic construction and deconstruction of meaning through the use of language and intuition. He looks at words as based on sounds, seeing them as arrays of letters which can then be fragmented into pieces, creating seemingly endless forms, patterns and compositions.

In both of the works, the artist uses words as creative tools in different ways—from the physicality of each letter to the sound, correlation of meanings or free associations. The line between art and poetry is so thin that it seems to disappear upon reading.

The LiberArs series is a collection of small-format artists’ books published by Ivorypress and designed by the artists themselves. Since the publication of the first series edition in 2009, Ivorypress has collaborated with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Long, Santiago Sierra and Jenny Holzer, among others.