A New Alphabet ~ Commentary Z

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 &
Zed
David, Jean Louis. Painting, Death of Socrates. 1787.
Nadar. Photograph, Paris Catacombs. 1861.
Remington, Frederic. Painting, Ridden Down. 1905.
Quoted Text:
Schwitters, Kurt. “An Anna Blume - To Eve Blossom”. 1923.
Poem, “Zero to One A”. 2002.

This page establishes a relation between the numbers and the letters through zero and the letter “Z”. The idea of the human as an accumulation of numbers or discreet individuals is implied in Nadar’s photograph of a pile of skulls in the Paris catacombs. Nadar made scores of photographs of these catacombs, using a hand-held flash light for illumination, to document an estimated seven million skeletons in the catacomb.

David’s painting of Socrates’ death implies the embodiment of ideas in the icon of a person. Remington’s painting of a lone Indian is an icon of the memory of culture, embodied in the stories retold. Kurt Schwitters’ evocative poem, “An Anna Blume - To Eve Blossom” (1923) praising the human animal, has reflexive connotations with several pages in this book including: Abstract Signs, A Beginning, Fauna Skins; and Visible Venus.    

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© Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Contact: Jeanie S. Dean. Updated: 01/18/04