A little while back I received a great work of beautiful asemic writing by the extremely talented Icelandic artist Jóhann Viljálmsson. The name of the book is Etudes in Solitude. The book makes me think of illuminated manuscripts but are written completely in asemic calligraphy, like a contemporary version of The Book of Kells. The book was created during the Covid-19 viral outbreak. The name of the book is Etudes in Solitude. As the title suggests this book was cooked up during the quarantine from the virus which is still ravaging the globe, but it ends optimistically with healing and creation. Accompanying the art is a poem titled DEER HUNTING and deer hunting by Hlin Agnarsdóttir. It is a poem that gets at absence of something beautiful yet absent. The poem was created in Iceland in a country with no deer, an animal divine yet hunted. The book is introduced by W. Sheldon Hurst with insightful commentary about
the Covid epidemic and its relation to the solitary act of asemic writing and poetry.
You can get the book at the ArtReach Gallery, Portland Oregon for $20.00.
ArtReach Gallery at First Congressional UCC
1126 Southwest Park Avenue, Portland, OR, 97205
503-748-9419
uccportland.org
Or just contact W Sheldon Hurst on Facebook.