books

The Asemic Effect What—and how—does meaningless writing mean?

by David Ebony

freed from responsibility in relation to all SCHWENGER, AN EMERITUS PROFESSOR

possible context; it appears in one brief act, who is now a resident fellow at University
which, being devoid of reflections, declares of Western Ontario’s Centre for the Study of
its solitude and therefore its innocence.” Theory and Criticism, defines the interpre-
Barthes’s thoughts about writing, as well as tive tension that arises from close scrutiny of
the logogram-like drawings that he created works like Schendel’s as “the asemic effect.”
throughout his career, are central to Asemic: He sees this tension as a positive force rather
The Art of Writing, Peter Schwenger’s engaging than any sort of nihilistic or negative ges-
and groundbreaking book focused on the ture. Early on in the book, endorsing a point
asemic as a cultural phenomenon and a rar- made by UWO professor Laurence De Looze,
efied genre of modern and contemporary art. he characterizes asemic art and writing as
Schwenger attributes the first uses of the a form of resistance to global technology’s
term to Barthes and to Jacques Derrida, who, “linguistic machine that offers templates
in his 1969 book Dissemination, refers to the not only for words but also for thought; that
blanks between words as “asemic spacing,” values information over affect; and that rein-
which makes signification possible without forces the long history of the alphabet’s dom-
in itself signifying. As Schwenger explains, inance over Western thinking.” Schwenger
the linguistic term “seme” (derived from extols the asemic as a provocation to
the Greek term sema, or sign) is negated or thought—without paraphrasable meaning,
neutralized by the privative prefix “a-.” Thus perhaps, but not without significance. He
PETER SCHWENGER meaning itself—or, rather, the sign’s capacity proposes, indeed, that “an awareness of what
Asemic: The Art of Writing, Minneapolis, to convey meaning—is eliminated. lies beyond our familiar structures of mean-
University of Minnesota Press, 2019, 192 pages, 60 In various online exchanges in 1997, ing may keep us from having our life scripts
illustrations, $100 cloth; $25 paperback.
visual poets Jim Leftwich and Tim Gaze (the written according to an already existent sys-
latter now publisher of the digital Asemic tem of signs.”
Magazine) applied the term to their quasi- A chapter titled “Three Asemic
calligraphic writings, drawings, and collages. Ancestors” underscores the importance of
IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN ENTHRALLED BY Schwenger considers this act of naming to the art and writing of Henri Michaux, Cy
ancient Maya glyphs, or by graffiti artist be the launch of “the asemic” as an interna- Twombly, and Barthes as key to appreciating
Rammellzee’s scrawl-like script, you know tional movement, which now encompasses a subsequent asemic works in all their various
how it feels to appreciate the formal beauty broad range of publications, exhibitions, and forms. Michaux, inspired by certain works by
of writings whose precise lexical import online activity. Paul Klee and Max Ernst, explored the limits
remains elusive or impenetrable. For most For art historians and critics, the asemic of words by means of scrawled forms, pre-
observers, unable to decipher Maya picture- had already been in play for many years, but sented in lines, that appear to be a form of
words or Gothic Futurist graffiti, the seman- without a label as such. In light of the curr- writing. Yet while these components suggest
tic point of the texts may be ungraspable, rent asemic surge, Schwenger explores anew individual signs, they are actually neither
but the efforts of these scribes—evident in the work of pioneering artists like Mirtha individual nor signlike. Michaux’s seminal
the sheer visual intensity of their works—are Dermisache (1940–2012), from Argentina, work Narration (1927, India ink on paper),
clearly never pointless. The sinuous shapes and Mira Schendel (1919–1988), from Brazil. regarded as one of the first examples of ase-
of the signs and the rhythmic fluidity of the Schendel produced layered palimpsests of mic writing, consists of eighteen horizontal
markings can convey to viewers a distinctive fractured letters, word fragments, and osten- rows of unruly scribbles, each separated by
range of emotions, as well as, perhaps, a hint sibly indecipherable cursive script applied to wide, irregular white intervals. The scrawls
of the exhilarating freedom that other forms large transparent acrylic sheets hung from grow more agitated and compressed from
of writing could offer if liberated from what the ceiling. Each of these works initially the top of the page to the bottom, ending
might be termed the shackles of meaning. appears to be a completely meaningless text. finally at the lower center edge with the
In his influential 1953 book Writing Degree But as the viewer focuses on isolated portions work’s title quite legibly—and jarringly—
Zero, Roland Barthes, examining the nuances of the composition, seen from certain angles, handwritten in shaky block letters.
and innovations of Stéphane Mallarmé’s details emerge and coalesce to suggest the Eschewing an expressionist vocabulary of
Gutter Credits

poetry, remarks that “the word, dissociated possibility of a discernible statement, a poten- abstract forms and gestures, Michaux concen-
from the husk of habitual clichés, and from tially urgent message. Invariably, however, the trated on the pulse, rhythm, and movement
the technical reflexes of the writer, is then message remains obscure. of the line. The markings referred to the body

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 books

for instance, feature irregular rows of fran-

tically scribbled pencil markings on paper
that vary in density and intensity from page
to page, conveying a sense of recurrent rage.
Schwenger suggests that “Letters” may have
been a response to the hostile reception
accorded Twombly’s 1964 exhibition at New
York’s Leo Castelli Gallery. The show was
harshly panned by most critics, including
Donald Judd, who called it a “fiasco.” These
reactions prompted Twombly to stop paint-
ing almost completely for a year.
Subsequently, of course, Twombly
recovered from the blow, and regained his
reputation with totally asemic works, such as
his well-regarded “blackboard” series of large
paintings, produced in the late 1960s. Here,
elliptical white markings in rhythmic rows set
against slate gray grounds, often resemble cur-
sive letters, yet consistently thwart legibility.
In these works, Schwenger contends, “we are
facing the inscriptive sublime, more powerful
for the large scale of the paintings.”
One of Cecil Touchon's “Asemic Palimpsest Poems,” Cui Fei: Manuscript of Nature, 2002–, dried vines on
2011, watercolor on antique poetry book page, 71/4 by wall, dimensions variable. ADDRESSING THE THORNY TOPIC OF ASEMIC
51/2 inches.
writing and the natural world, Schwenger
considers artists such as Rosaire Appel and
angela rawlings, whose photographs of
in motion, as he aimed for a kind of short- closely resemble Michaux’s. According things like tree branches, leaves, and tracings
hand dance notation rather than calligraphic to Schwenger, Barthes had learned from in sand suggest elaborate scripts. Meanwhile,
import. These experiments culminated in his Michaux how to “bypass meaning in order Cui Fei, in her ongoing series “Manuscript of
1951 book Mouvements, filled with rows of bra- to unlock the power of the illegible.” Barthes Nature” and “Tracing the Origin,” arranges
vura brushstrokes, lively gestures that recall called his asemic drawings contre-écritures objects found in nature, such as dried vine
activated stick figures. After Michaux traveled (counter-writings), and in 1976 published a tendrils and twigs, in a manner that conjures
through Asia, he often made drawings that number of them in the journal Luna-Park, the wild-cursive style of Chinese calligraphy.
resemble Chinese characters or pictograms; alongside works by like-minded artists The “characters” that appear in the series,
but to convey the sensation of movement Dermisache and Brion Gysin. however, remain unreadable.
remained his central concern. Barthes wrote quite extensively on The elaborate and sometimes monumen-
Mouvements had a direct influence on Twombly’s work, and, culling from these tal installations of Chinese artists Wenda Gu
Barthes’s paintings and drawings, which texts, Schwenger presents a fascinating—and and Xu Bing, produced since the 1980s, have
convincing—case for Twombly as the major taken the asemic concept to a new level. For
asemic artist. Focusing on a 1973 painting, his room-size Book from the Sky (1987–91), Xu
Virgil, he notes how Twombly, by means of Bing invented some four thousand indeci-
the abjectly scrawled name of the poet in pherable characters, each adhering closely
partly obliterated letters, manages to evoke— to the conventions of Chinese word forma-
without in any way cognitively depicting or tion and calligraphic practice. Wenda Gu,
describing—Mediterranean culture and the in his many vast installations, incorporates
city of Rome, where Twombly was living at script in pseudo-languages (both Eastern and
the time. Referring to Barthes’s notion of Western in appearance), made of human
“atmosphere” in Twombly’s work, Schwenger hair collected from barbershops around the
points out that what Swedish scholar and world. The letters of hair, Schwenger points
novelist Aris Fioretos calls the work’s “vapor out, express a “tension between the natural
wrought by erasers” takes on the character and the cultural.”
of an ambience, from which Virgil’s name The book concludes with an in-depth
Touchon: Courtesy Ontological Museum.

emerges and to which it returns. exploration of contemporary asemic novels,

While Virgil features a legible word, and films, videos, and music scores, including
serves to demonstrate the use of language books by graphic designer Christopher
in the artist’s practice, the significance of Skinner. His ambitious four-part novel, Four
Twombly’s art for today's asemic movement Fools (2011), features page after page filled
centers on his completely illegible composi- with elegant script in a typeface of the
Gutter Credits

tions filled with marks that formally resem- artist’s invention, redolent of Islamic man-
Rosaire Appel: Beach Language, 2011, photograph, 20 ble writing. Works from his 1967 “Letter of uscripts. Like the ancient Maya glyphs that
by 16 inches. Resignation” series of thirty-eight drawings, never fail to beckon, Skinner’s pages seem to

26 May 2020
 angela rawlings: that the world of Art Brut and outsider art-
Trace, 2012, ists is apparently not part of Schwenger’s
photo of a small
creature's trail in
purview. Predating Michaux’s experiments,
sand. self-taught artists like Adolf Wölfli created
elaborate, idiosyncratic, and largely indeci-
pherable, written “languages,” and the con-
nection here would seem to be appropriate,
if not obvious. Schwenger’s endeavor appar-
ently aims for the asemic to be acknowl-
edged and embraced by the contemporary
art world and cultural mainstream, which
is commendable. It could be even more
exciting, though, to further explore and
underscore its revolutionary, counterculture
potential.

1
Roland Barthes, Writing Degree Zero, New York, Hill and Wang,
1953/1967, p. 75.

be a product of some lost civilization, and to novel’s implied narrative unfolds only in the
bear an enigmatic message. Perhaps some- viewer’s imagination.
DAVID EBONY is an independent curator who
day it will be deciphered with the help of a Asemic: The Art of Writing is rewarding on
writes for Yale University Press online.
futuristic Rosetta Stone. For now, though, the a number of levels. It is surprising, though,

Books in Brief

Chalk: The Art and Magazine: The Cut-Up A Private Notebook of The Cecil Touchon
Erasure of Cy Twombly Asemics Winds Asemic Reader
JOSHUA RIVKIN SCOTT HELMES FEDERICO FEDERICI CECIL TOUCHON
Using previously unpublished Scott Helmes—a visual poet, Exploring asemic patterns found Formerly a member of Fluxus, Cecil
photographs, poet and essayist photographer, and architect—culls in nature, Berlin-based physicist, Touchon creates visual poetry by
Joshua Rivkin reconstructs key typefaces from magazines and, translator, and writer Federico combining and overwriting found
moments in Cy Twombly’s life—from through various methods of erasure, Federici offers a meditation on trees materials and texts from a variety of
his time at Black Mountain College creates his own asemic writing. and wind. This volume contains a nineteenth- and twentieth-century
to his 1950s travels though Italy with This dissolution of text evokes wide variety of mark-making—from sources. Using the same materials,
Robert Rauschenberg to his 1979 philosophical questions about thin curved lines and printed text to as well as snippets of text from
retrospective at the Whitney Museum afterimages, memory, and the thick smooth brushstrokes and small posters and spam emails, he also
of American Art. The book lays bare a instability of lexical meaning itself. illustrations. makes collages that form the basis
personal side of the artist—one often Experimental sound and text poet Morrisville, N.C., Lulu, 2019; 32 for paintings. This volume compiles
obscured by his oblique allusions and John M. Bennett provides the book’s pages, 27 color illustrations, $14.78 forty years’ worth of Touchon’s
asemic mark-making. foreword. paperback. collages and asemic works on
New York, Melville House, 2018; Post-Asemic Press, 2019; 70 pages, paper, as well as pages from his
Courtesy Julia Stagg.

496 pages, 22 black-and-white $16 paperback. unpublished sketchbooks.

illustrations, $25.60 hardcover, Post-Asemic Press, 2019; 126
$18.99 paperback, $14.99 ebook. pages, $30 paperback.

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