Dr Christian Book

An interview with Elisabeth Sweet, in which I discuss progress on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

A panel about the act of writing for extraterrestrials (on behalf of an event sponsored by the SETI Institute).

A panel about the use of AI in the production of literature (especially among poets of the avant-garde).

A panel about the role that poets from the Verseverse have played in the 'crypto' milieu of Web 3.0.

A panel about the role that poets from the Verseverse have played in the 'crypto' milieu of Web 3.0.

An artshow featuring examples of artworks from the book 'Moon Bound' scheduled for delivery to the South Pole of the Moon aboard the FLIP Rover on the Griffin-1 mission.

An interview with Jonathan Ball, in which I discuss progress on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

An interview with Samuel Andreyev, in which I discuss progress on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

I performed a poem, as a commission, inspired by the first all animated cartoons, "Fantasmagorie" by Émile Cohl.

I performed excerpts of poetry from "The Xenotext (Book 2)," discussing the premises of this project.

'The Xenotext (Book 2)' documents the successful completion of an incredible experiment by Christian Bök, who has engineered a deathless bacterium so that it might preserve a poem in its genome for eternity. Bök rehearses some of the techniques likely to be used in the future to preserve the cultural heritage of our civilization against a potential planetary disaster; moreover, Bök speculates that, buried within the biochemistry of Life itself, there really does exist an innate beauty, if not a hidden poetry – a literal message that we might read, if we deign to seek it.

An artshow, featuring works by artists who work with blockchain technology to represent the self, including two prints of 'visual poetry' from 'The Xenotext.'

I performed excerpts of poetry from "The Xenotext (Book 2)," discussing the premises of this project.

I performed excerpts of poetry from "The Xenotext (Book 2)," discussing the premises of this project.

I performed excerpts of poetry from "The Xenotext (Book 2)," discussing the premises of this project.

A poem from 'The Xenotext,' addressing the implications of the Fermi Paradox for the future of life on Earth.

A poem that itemizes the superpowers of organisms capable of surviving in very inhospitable environments.

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists affiliated with the publication of the 'Special Edition' of 'The Xenotext (Book 2)' — a boxed issue of my ongoing project.

I have composed a vinyl album that records a series of samples from my repertoire of "sound-poems."

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists affiliated with the Verseverse, including my collaboration with Sarah Ridgley: ‘You Must Visit Hell to Seek the Masons of Your Fate.’

“The Xenotext” is an artistic exercise currently being undertaken by the poet Christian Bök, who proposes to create an example of “living poetry.” Bök plans to generate a short verse about language and genetics, whereupon he plans to use a “chemical alphabet” to translate this poem into a sequence of DNA for subsequent implantation into the genome of a bacterium (in this case, a microbe called Deinococcus radiodurans — an extremophile, capable of surviving, without mutation, in even the most hostile milieus, including the vacuum of outer space).

I wrote a libretto about neutrinos for an avant-garde opera (directed by Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand).

I performed excerpts of poetry from "The Xenotext (Book 2)," discussing the premises of this project.

Jacques Derrida claims that the mark constitutes the minimal element of writing — what he calls ‘the irreducible atom’1 at the asemic origin for the metaphysics of meaning itself (be this origin in the biogenetic code of life or the cybernetic code of data). The writing of the mark, the grapheme, underpins the transmission of information, even before the advent of our phonetic language (for which the mark might seem to constitute the written glyph that evolves to capture an uttered sound). Each extant mark refers, beyond itself, to an absent mark, alluding to this absence, again and again, via iteration and recursion, doing so through a series of sequential references, none of which can terminate in a last mark. The meaning of a mark thus finds itself characterized both by a differing across sites of signification and by a deferring across times of signification.2

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson recounts the story of a man divided against himself, oscillating between two identities – one decent (named Jekyll) and one wicked (named Hyde). This short essay by Christian Bök examines the transitions that occur in the narrative, when the proper names shift from one moniker to the other in reference to the protagonist: each name vying for ‘citation’ in the story, thereby attempting to predominate, as a signifier, throughout the course of events. The narrative (perhaps coincidentally) maintains an almost equal usage of these two names, as if preserving an equilibrium of tensions between their contrarian identities, balancing them almost perfectly, giving each character 100 chances to be mentioned. The form of the story thus seems to perform the idea of eponymic division, indicated within the plot.

I performed excerpts of poetry in an ensemble, with two other poets, on behalf of the Verseverse.

I performed part of my libretto for the avant-garde opera, entitled 'Neutrino Bath' (directed by Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand) (10 min.).

I performed the 'Ursonate' by Kurt Schwitters for ‘Out of the Ordinary’ in Canberra, Australia (20 min.).

I performed excerpts of poetry in an ensemble, with four other poets, on behalf of the AWP Conference 2025.

'My Works, Ye Mighty' expands upon the conceptual literature of Christian Bök, particularly his ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.' Based upon work conducted during his tenure as the Writer-in-Residence at Athabasca University, this essay addresses the concept of 'scale' in poetry, meditating on this topic with an abundance of imagery; moreover, his essay appears alongside an epic poem especially written by him for this publication.

I performed samples of my "sound-poems" from the vinyl album, entitled "Umlaut Machine." (30 min.)

'A Zoom Lens for the Future of the Text' argues that all ‘concepts’ for poetry may, in fact, depend upon a premise about the minimal element of composition for a text – its unit, or its ‘atom,’ from which a poem might build its poetics through the recombinant permutation of such elemental materials.

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists from the Verseverse, including my artwork, entitled 'Of Yellow.'

An artshow, featuring tributes to Herbert W. Franke, including my artwork, entitled 'The Orchid Cage.'

An artshow, featuring textual artwork by abstract painters in Melbourne, including my work 'Mona Lisa Blue.'

An artshow, featuring 24 artworks, entitled 'The Moons of Darwin,' each made in 60 min. over 24 hours.

‘Bibliomechanics’ is a book that consists of 27 Rubik’s cubes, stacked together into a block (3 × 3 × 3) so as to create a facsimile of the ‘writing-machine’ described by Jonathan Swift in 'A Voyage to Laputa.' The book examines the means by which we might write works of poetry automatically without having to think.

The article argues that the avant-garde fails, because even though critics refuse to see the merits of, what must appear to be, a completely capricious act of incompetence, the avant-garde still insists that such 'errors' can highlight a new set of virtuosities that have so far gone unconsidered, if not unappreciated.

This lecture addresses the role of monochromic abstraction in the recent legacy of painting, especially works that feature only the colour ‘white’ in their palette. The lecture shows the influence of these paintings upon the poetics of Conceptualism, providing context for works performed at Athabasca University.

This lecture addresses my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext,' which strives to encipher a poem into the genome of a deathless bacterium, capable of surviving forever in even the most lethal of biomes. This poem might prove durable enough to outlast our civilization, surviving on Earth until the death of the Sun.

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists affiliated with Zora, including my commission, entitled 'Trigon Mirror.'

An artshow, featuring artists from the Verseverse, including my artwork, entitled 'The Moons of Darwin.'

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists from the Verseverse, including 'Translating Translating Apollinaire – Gallifreyan.'

An artshow, featuring works inspired by Douglas Hofstadter, including my artwork, entitled 'Protein 13.'

An artshow, featuring artists from the Verseverse, including my artwork, entitled 'Bibliomechanics.'

An artshow, featuring work from the Verseverse, including excerpts from 'Fifty Days at Iliam' by me and Sarah Ridgley.

An artshow, featuring NFTs by artists from the Verseverse, including my 'voice gem,' entitled 'Kalokagathia'

An artshow featuring examples of artworks from the book 'Moon Bound' scheduled for delivery to the South Pole of the Moon aboard the FLIP Rover on the Griffin-1 mission.

The article argues that, for Conceptualism, the crypto milieu blurs the line between artwork and writing, offering a new way to play with the material of language. The poet can now work with computerized technologies (like GANs and NFTs) to interrogate the sociological implications of this exciting frontier.

'A Zoom Lens for the Future of the Text' argues that all ‘concepts’ for poetry may, in fact, depend upon a premise about the minimal element of composition for a text – its unit, or its ‘atom,’ from which a poem might build its poetics through the recombinant permutation of such elemental materials.

‘Alpha Helix’ is a delirious catalogue of helical imagery in the world, testifying to the ubiquity of this form by imbuing everything with the proteomic structure of life itself. The text suggests that the evolution of life may eventually play a role in the endgame of the universe, thus deciding the fate of the entire cosmos.

The article argues that 'Fountain' constitutes one of the 'limit-cases' in Art, largely because it stands outside the time of its production, remaining 'untimely' — sacred perhaps to a primordial civilization of hierophants from a bygone time, if not a superhuman civilization of technicians from a future time.

An artshow, featuring work by my peer Kaye Strange, alongside my multiple, entitled 'Polyphony.'

An artshow featuring a set of maquettes from the series of artworks, entitled 'Mona Lisa Muji.'

An artshow, featuring artworks, inspired by a page from 'Tristram Shandy' by Laurence Sterne.

An artshow, featuring 48 artworks from my series of poetic images, entitled 'The Kazimir Effect.'

'The Kazimir Effect' takes inspiration from a simple, iconic square: 'Suprematist Composition: White on White' by the artist Kazimir Malevich. Bök has created a series of haiku (complete with maquettes and paintings) composed by juxtaposing two names for varied brands of ‘white,’ sold by British Paints.

'Time Among the Sphinxes' is a manifesto about avant-garde poets — the lost, time travellers in our literary heritage. Also featured in this chapbook is 'Translating Translating Apollinaire (Gallifreyan)', which translates a poem by bpNichol into the imaginary, clockwork language spoken by Doctor Who.

A poem derived from an algorithm called 'The Apostrophe Engine,' performing searches for the title online.

A work of visual poetry, creating a drawing derived from the lengths of sentences in a story by Jorge Luis Borges.

A poem, recounting anecdotes about the ancient mystery of pyramids, seen throughout the entirety of history.

An interview with Jonathan Ball, in which we discuss the role that AI might play in the future of poetry.

An interview with Zohar Atkins, in which I discuss progress on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

An interview with James Robinson, in which I discuss the role of 'constraint' in the legacy of my poetics.

An interview with Kalen Iwamoto, in which we discuss the opportunities for poetry in the 'crypto' milieu of Web 3.0.

An interview with Andrew Hugill, in which we discuss the poetics of pataphysics in the history of science.

This lecture addresses the role of monochromic abstraction in the recent legacy of painting, especially works that feature only the colour ‘white’ in their palette. The lecture shows the influence of these paintings upon the poetics of Conceptualism, providing context for artworks in the Justin Art House Museum.

A love poem about a visit to see a cavern of glow-worms in the Tamborine Mountains of Queensland, Australia.

A poem commissioned by the SETI Institute, responding to the short story, entitled 'A Sign in Space' by Italo Calvino.

A work of light verse about a star in the style of 'The Red Wheelbarrow' by the poet Wiliiam Carlos Williams.

An interview with the Turkish journal, 'Buzdokuz,' about my work on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

A poem that consists only of words that can be typed on a keyboard, using the right hand exclusively.

I performed my poem, entitled 'The Moons of Darwin,' for the the ‘IGNITE Art and Light Festival’ (05 min.).

I performed excerpts from my work, 'The Courville Collection,' for the ELO Conference 2023 (10 min.).

I performed my poem 'Fifty Days at Iliam' on two occasions for the event ‘Poem = Work of Art' (05 min.).

I performed excerpts from my work, entitled 'The Courville Collection, for 'Metaverse Art Week' (60 min.).

I performed excerpts from my work, entitled 'The Courville Collection,' for the ‘Story Summit’ (60 min.).

I perform poetry selected from the archives of The Paris Review, focusing on texts, inspired by Greek myths.

An interview with Alice Allan, in which I discuss progress on my ongoing project, entitled 'The Xenotext.'

A poem about the discovery of a bacterium surviving for months inside a space probe on the surface of the Moon.

This article provides an abstract for "The Xenotext."

This lecture describes the artistic process required to complete 'The Xenotext' over the course of 25 years of experimentation, showcasing the Sisyphean challenge, overcome through perseverance in the fulfillment of this task. The lecture outlines all the problems encountered during the completion of this task.

This lecture describes the artistic process required to complete 'The Xenotext' over the course of 25 years of experimentation, showcasing the Sisyphean challenge, overcome through perseverance in the fulfillment of this task. The lecture outlines all the problems encountered during the completion of this task.

An artshow that features mosaics made of Lego tiles and paintings made from interwoven jigsaw puzzles.

An interview with Otso Venho, in which we discuss my work upon my opus 'The Xenotext.'

A poem, excerpted from 'The Courville Collection' (dedicated to the poet Helen Hajnoczky).

A discussion with Anthony Etherin about my project "The Xenotext" and the role of AI in the future of poetry.

I performed excerpts of poetry in an ensemble, with four other poets, launching a book by Charles Bernstein.

A panel about lessons learned from our careers in poetry (for a group of readers at 'Word Up Barrie').