LETTRISM

Founded in Paris by Isidore Isou (1925; b. Jean-Isidore Goldstein), himself a young refugee recently arrived from Rumania, Lettrism is perhaps the epitome of a circumscribed European literary group, with its untitled head, its insiders, its hangerson, and its excommunications. Lettrist work seems based on calligraphy, initially for books but also for visual art, and thus in the age of print seems quite innovative (though it might not have fared as well in preprint times). One recurring device is...