Long shot: What was this dadaist book?

January 5, 2016 5:33 PM

I recall seeing a book about art, dada, and language, but can recall little about it. On one page, the author used several different fonts on several words to express a rhetorical point. It was a paperback, and I am relatively but not completely certain the edition belonged to a classics republishing company like Penguin or Vintage Books.
posted by solarion to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: Tristan Tzara's Seven Dada Manifestos immediately comes to mind. Great book. It has some text with different typefaces and font sizes. There was a 1977 hardback edition published by Calder that was printed as a paperback in 1981 by Oneworld Classics (retitled Seven Dada Manifestos and Lampisteries).
posted by mountainpeak at 6:41 PM on January 5, 2016

Response by poster: That's almost certainly it, as the title rings a bell; though apparently it's not as widely published as I thought it was, which may explain the difficulty in finding it. I'll procure a copy and check.
posted by solarion at 6:47 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you're having trouble finding the Tzara, it's anthologized in Robert Motherwell's anthology The Dada Painters and Poets, along with some other great stuff.

Probably also in Mary Ann Caws's Manifesto, but I'm less certain about that and the cat is in my lap so I can't check.

Plus, if it turns out it's not the Tzara you're looking for, you'll probably enjoy both of these anyway.
posted by dizziest at 7:52 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Update: It is indeed Seven Dada Manifestos. Thank you!
posted by solarion at 1:50 AM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]