{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O155136"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O155136/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O155136","accessionNumber":"CIRC.53-1971","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"untitled  (poetry moons oboys lemons )","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"homage to spicer / lorca","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Dom Sylvester Houédard was a Benedictine monk and eminent theologian, but also a pioneer, in Britain, of concrete poetry, a poetic form in which the arrangement of words and letters in a pattern on the page relates to the meaning or emotional impact of the poem. Using concrete poetry as a kind of springboard Houédard developed a way of making more purely abstract or pictorial images with the typewriter keys. He wrote that \"During 1945 I realised the typewriter's control of verticals and horizontals, balancing its mechanism for release from its own imposed grid, (and) offered possibilities that suggested (I was in India at the time) the grading of Islamic calligraphy from cursive (naskhi) writing through cufic to the abstract formal arabesque, that 'wise modulation between being and not being'”. \r\nThis is one of a number of so-called typestracts by Houédard in the museum’s collection. Some contain a legible arrangement of words, others are abstract, often resembling the drawings of the Russian Constructivists.","physicalDescription":"Image typed onto a sheet of thin paper in turn pasted to a card. Overall is a pattern of narrowly spaced horizontal lines which appear to be made of glue stains. Over this, the words 'oboys' and 'lemons' are typed vertically, with the words 'poetry' and 'moons' typed horizontally, all are interlocked, as if part of a crossword. Beneath this the words: 'homage to spicer/lorca'","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Houédard, Dom Sylvester","id":"A15939"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"typewriter","id":"x42875"},{"text":"ink","id":"x39739"}],"techniques":[{"text":"typewriter","id":"AAT233655"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Typescript on paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Typography","id":"THES260188"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"MP","shelf":"311","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"UK","id":"x29336"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Gloucestershire","id":"x28892"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Prinknash","id":"THES275854"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"11/07/1963","earliest":"1963-07-11","latest":"1963-07-11"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Dated by the Artist"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"14.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"22.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"dsh 110763/ poetry/moons/oboys/lemons\r\n(homage to spicer/lorca)","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Lettered at top of sheet with with the artist's initials and date, with the words  of the 'poem' arranged as if they were in a crossword puzzle below. and below this lettered (homage...etc"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"By Dom Sylvester Houédard: 'homage to spicer / lorca', typewriter 'drawing', 1963","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1971"},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Dom Sylvester Houédard : Visual Poetries</i>, London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971","id":"AUTH354625"},"details":"2a or 2b","free":""}],"production":"The words of the 'poem' are arranged to suggest reading in a variety of orders.\n\nAttribution note: All Houédard's typewriter 'drawings' from 1950-1970 were made using an Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"Gloucestershire","id":"x28892"},{"text":"V&A","id":"x32782"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"poetry","id":"AAT55932"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CIRC.53-1971"],"accessionNumberNum":"53","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1971,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-03","recordCreationDate":"2008-05-30","availableToBook":false}}