Posts Tagged ‘grammar’
Tischblumenbilder
Tischblumenbilder (‘Tableflowerpictures’) is the third and final of my recent publications in German. It reflects on the declension of adjectives in the German language (or as Mark Twain would say, ‘The Awful German Language’). The book consists of words found in an instruction table that presented declensions of three nouns with adjectives. I stamped these phrases by hand, thereby causing fluctuations from phrase to phrase and from booklet to booklet, mimicking the constant flow of word form variations that German presents due to the required identification of grammatical case, number and gender. The pairing of two phrases on each page also causes subtle shifts of meaning.
Realized at Künstlerhaus Bethanien during a residency awarded by the Mondriaan Fonds.
Stamped with archival black ink, booklet size 11 x 19 cm, 24 pages.
Edition limited to 50 numbered copies.
Priced at € 24,- plus shipping. See some images here.
Published in Berlin, 2015.
Husch!
Another recent publication in German, Husch! is a small book containing two poems composed from sentences found in a grammar book (Hermann Sanders’ Kurzgefaßtes Lehrbuch der Deutschen Sprache für Chinesen which was first published in 1922). The first poem is titled ‘Was ich weiss’ (What I know), the second poem is ‘Das Wetter’ (The Weather). Each page carries only one line and the lines move about the pages in a free manner.
Published in Berlin, June 2015.
Edition of 65 numbered copies. Black & white printing, perfect bound paperback. Size 10.5 x 14.8 cm, 84 pages.
Priced at € 18,- plus shipping. See some images here.
On press
Today is stamping day for the first of two new books that were inspired by my confusions with regards to German grammar. Japanese ink meets Italian paper in an expression of German grammar through stamps cut in the UK. The books will be launched at Miss Read in Berlin June 26-28. For more info see Mein Buch and Tischblumenbilder.
Elisabeth Tonnard 