{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O155139"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O155139/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O155139","accessionNumber":"CIRC.54-1971","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"untitled","type":"generic title"}],"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":"Card covered with thin paper; overall a pattern of narrowly spaced parallel horizontal lines, apparently made from glue stains. Card has a deep vertical fold down the centre with part of the image duplicated (like a Rorschach blot) from left to right; pattern made up of typed letters from various keys, with the background predominatly of 'T's and 'L's.","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":"probably 1963","earliest":"1963-01-01","latest":"1963-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"20.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"33.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"By Dom Sylvester Houédard: untitled, from a series making use of mirror images, typewriter 'drawing', undated, probably ca. 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":"4","free":""}],"production":"Attribution 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.54-1971"],"accessionNumberNum":"54","accessionNumberPrefix":"CIRC","accessionYear":1971,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-03","recordCreationDate":"2008-05-30","availableToBook":false}}