After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Small Presses and Little Magazines, 1960–2025

This exhibition displays Steve Clay and Granary Books' substantial collection of visual, experimental, concrete, and sound poetry, as well as several Granary Books publications on this theme. On the occasion of the exhibition, Granary published an accompanying book by the same name, featuring a bibliography and other resources. At the Grolier Club in New York City, from April 23–July 26, 2025.

The exhibition was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, Brooklyn Rail, 4Columns, International Times, and Print.

Online resources include:

The following events were hosted at the Grolier Club:

April 25, 6-7:30pm: Opening Conversation with Steve Clay and Johanna Drucker, moderated by M.C. Kinniburgh.

May 1 & June 12, 1pm: Lunchtime Tour of Exhibition.

May 22, 6-7:30pm: Roundtable on Visual Poetry, co-sponsored by NYU Special Collections and the Bibliographical Society of America. With Lisa Pearson (Siglio Press), Charlotte Priddle (Special Collections, New York University), Amelia Grounds (The Bancroft Library at University of Berkeley), Antonio Sergio Bessa (emeritus, The Bronx Museum of the Arts), and Alison Fraser (The Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo), moderated by M.C. Kinniburgh and Conley Lowrance.

June 26, 6pm: Person, Place, Thing with Randy Cohen: live taping with Steve Clay and M.C. Kinniburgh.

About the Exhibition:

By the 1960s, visual and experimental poetry was widely acknowledged as the first truly international poetry movement, occurring on several continents. The simultaneous “mimeograph revolution”—an emerging name for the proliferation of small, poet- and artist-operated presses and little magazines that emerged in the postwar era—meant that an extraordinary variety of experimental work appeared in ephemeral outlets, often reflecting an array of geographic influence and communities. After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, 1960–2025 is a thematic journey through the history of these experimental poetics—including concrete poetry, sound poetry, and other monikers—and their material forms. The exhibition and accompanying book explore cut-up, collage, sound poetry scores, performance scripts, practices of “writing through,” erasure, asemic writing, glyph systems, calligraphy, experimental typography, non-Western alphabets, assemblages, and beyond.

Key contributors include William S. Burroughs, Wallace Berman, Mary Beach, bill bissett, Judith Copithorne, bpNichol, Marian Zazeela, Timothy C. Ely, Johanna Drucker, Emily McVarish, Hansjörg Mayer, Cecilia Vicuña, d.a. levy, Seiichi Niikuni, Tom Phillips, Miroljub Todorović, Henri Chopin, and many others. Little magazines include Rhinozeros, Kontexts, Revue OU, Stereo Headphones, kroklok, ASA, and dozens more; presses include Xexoxial Editions, Beau Geste Press, Wild Hawthorne Press, Something Else Press, The Hermetic Press, Siglio Press, and Granary Books.