3 Notations/3 Rotations (The Signed/Limited Edition)

Cambridge, MA: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 1974. Boards. Near Fine. Toshi Katayama. #22 OF ONLY 150 COPIES (within a larger limitation of 1,000 copies) SIGNED BY BOTH THE POET OCTAVIO PAZ AND THE ARTIST TOSHI KATAYAMA. 3 brightly-colored, laminate geometric boards plus one board (containing the signatures and limitation, the copyright information and a brief background to this project) are sandwiched between 2 blank pieces of cardboard. They all measure 11 1/4" x 11 1/4" and are housed inside of a printed white laminate box. The 3 geometric boards, with their moveable parts, are designed by Toshi Katayama and each includes cryptic Octavio Paz text. These boards are titled "Bread or Riddle", "Two in One" and "Portrait" and, along with the "copyright" (or "signed/limited") board, are in bright, Near Fine condition. Just a touch of very light soiling to the "copyright" board, otherwise they're all as clean as could be. The fragile publisher's box is very presentable as well but does show some spotting and soiling to the front panel and edges. A bit of clear tape as well discreetly reinforces all of the corners. The background offered on the "copyright" board: "The interrelatedness of form and meaning in art has been a special concern of several major writers. Octavio Paz first explored the effect of visible shape on verse in BLANCO. Written in India in 1966, this poem is composed of words arrayed in columns which the author intended to be read independently and in combination. The idea derives, he has told me, partly from admiration for Mallarme but mainly from pondering on permutation, integration, continuity and other aspects of Tantric thought to which his mind had recently turned. In 1968 he wrote the TOPOEMS, a sequence of six, more explicitly, concrete poems. Whereas the effect of BLANCO's design is conveyed typographically, in these the words are manipulated topographically. Later the same year, Paz decided to see how movement might affect a poem's purpose. The idea came as he played with a timetable made of two superimposed and rotating discs which divulged through slotted openings, flights, distances and time between the world's major cities. These experiments led to the design and publication of DISCOS VISUALES. During his stay at Harvard in 1971/72, Paz met Toshihiro Katayama, the graphic artist who had joined the faculty of Visual and Environmental Studies at rhe Carpenter Center in 1966." This wonderful collaboration of poet and artist not only yielded an important example of early 70s graphic design but also an ambitious artist's book that resonates on a number of levels.