Words on Paper

September 2017, English, 5.5 x 8.5 in, 164 pages, risograph, softcover
Design: Sming Sming Books

Words on Paper is nonsensical's first guest-edited issue, with writings by Cara Despain, Abigail Han, Ali Kheradyar, M, Anna Knecht Schwarzer, Toisha Tucker, Suné Woods, and Meital Yaniv. In 2016, Meital Yaniv sent a provocation to seven artists with discreet writing practices. What resulted was an exhibition of the artists’ works, which became the host and incubator for five reading events that took place at LAST Projects in Los Angeles during a brief two-week period in a tense political moment—a few months before the 2016 election. Combined with the prompt of the reading events, the exhibition became a workshop for creating and presenting brand new writing. The short timeframe ensured the brewing of raw experimentation, forcing artists to produce largely unrehearsed and unedited pieces. As the artists sat in a circle, taking turns reading their works aloud without prescribed order, the gallery space housing their artworks also began to house their words. Words on Paper is a documentation of process. This book follows the dually organic and deliberate structure that the readings took. Each chapter is marked by each of the events, along with links to audio recordings of the writings, read in the artist’s own voice.

nonsensical is an annual publication run by Páll Haukur, Vivian Sming, and Alice Wang featuring critical and experimental texts by artists, writers, and other thinkers. Founded in 2013, the publication seeks to provide a place where visual artists and writers alike can freely explore and experiment with language and meaning—whether in its theoretical, poetic, or narrative-based form.