Revolutions - A Collaboration

Poetry. Illustrated by Jean Dibble. With critical commentary from Robert Archambeau. REVOLUTIONS is a unique collaboration between poet John Matthias, printmaker Jean Dibble, and critic Robert Archambeau. Two poetic sequences by Matthias, The HIJ and After Five Words Englished from the Russian generate, first, a corresponding sequence of poster- poems by Dibble and, second, a series of "free commentaries" by Archambeau. The HIJ, emerging initially from an alphabetical game using chance operations in the Dictionary, eventually produces something of a character and a narrative, both of which are probed by the artist and commentator. The Five Words are translated from Russian poet Osip Mandelstam's He Who Finds a Horseshoe. Again, the poster-poems enlarge on the text and the commentaries complete a sequence of revolutions without resolutions.