Leeds School of Arts

Avant-Garde Literature

Two of the books that have been published by the publishing imprint, Information as Material which was founded in 2002 by Professor Simon Morris, have been reviewed in a recent edition of the Times Literary Supplement.

50 different publications from Information as Material

I'm delighted that two of our titles from information as material have been reviewed in the recent Times Literary Supplement in 'the avant-garde issue', August 07 2019, no. 6071, which wittily has a blank cover as a nod to nothingness, particularly as this issue dedicates a whole section to the work of Maurice Blanchot (Invisible Partner), whose central tenet was that at the heart of all literature, you will find nothing.

In the Literary Criticism section, Michael Caines reviews Steven Zultanski's 'On the Literary Means of Representing the Powerful as Powerless' (iam, 2018) in his essay, 'Critical Progenies: a non-traditional approach to writing about books'. Caines says: "The thesis being that literature, as per the title, has a particular and effective knack for “representing power as illusory and contingent”. To portray a person in fiction, he suggests, with any “granular” particularity at all is to depict a person with weaknesses, blind spots, worries that keep them awake at night. “If one learned about powerful people only from books, one would know that they’re dumb, vain, smelly, confused, laughable, and feeble.”

Ellen Wiles also reviewed Adam Smyth's '13 March, 1911' (iam, 2019) in her piece titled: 'Small Found Dogs'. She says: "13 March 1911 is a slim volume that can easily be read in one sitting, yet its impact is substantial..." and also recognises the work we do as publishers: "It is a fine piece of work by its publisher, too, information as material (“iam”), which specializes in work by artists and writers that uses extant material. At a time when archive information is so profuse and easily obtainable online, and when the creative curation of such material is increasingly valuable, this is a project rich with the promise of further insights into literature, history and culture." The editors at information as material (Craig Dworkin, Kaja Marczewska, Simon Morris & Nick Thurston (2006-18)) couldn't be more proud of our two authors.

Attached images of the two front covers of the titles under review and the great image by Ricky Adams of all our 50+ titles to date. If you want to find out more, please find us at: informationasmaterial.org. All of our titles, that are still in print, are available for worldwide distribution via cornerhousepublications.org.

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