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Bezette stad
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"Van Ostaijen wrote Bezette Stad [Occupied, or Besieged City] in 1920 in Berlin, describing the German occupation of Antwerp during the war. In Berlin he met Dadaists George Grosz and Walter Mehring, and while Bezette Stad is often described as a Dada publication, its 'physioplastic typography' also hearkens to Futurism. Its jazz and entertainment references are much in the Dada vein, but [do] not share that movement's nihilism; as described by the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, 'on the basis of a markedly humanitarian approach, the poet denounces nihilism, civil authority and moral hypocrisy ... [Jespers'] bold, rhythmical typography and cubist illustrations seem to protest against war and suffering'"--From bookseller's description (Triolet Rare Books).
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Publisher
Publication
Antwerpen: Uitgave van het Sienjaal, 1921
Year
Is about
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Annotations / title notes
Notes
- Illustrations: 5 prints (including title page vignette) : woodcut, black & white ; full-page (4) and image 8 x 10 cm. Subject: Abstract images based on letter shapes.
- Concrete poems.
- Issued in gray paper covers; front cover design by Jespers, printed in black and blue.
- Illustrative matter also includes 2 full-page facsimiles, printed in black and reddish orange, several decorative section titles, and decorative typographical devices in the text; typography realized according to the poet's indications by Jespers and René Victor. Cf. colophon.
- Numbered edition of 540 copies: 40 on Vergé Arches (no. 1-40), and 500 on Vélin Registre (no. 41-540).
- "Dit boek werd gedrukt door F. Casie/drukker te Antwerpen/in de maanden februarie en maart/Bij ontstentenis van de dichter werd de korrektuur/voornamelik de overeenkomst van het typografiese met het manuskript en de aanduidingen/bezorgd door Oskar Jespers en René Victor"--Colophon.
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