Art Metropole

#14829

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis: A Selection

Artist

John Nyman

Price

$30.00

Date

2016

Publisher

John Nyman

Format

Artists' Books

Genre

Typography

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis: A Selection is a typographical artwork inspired by appropriation art, conceptual writing, and visual poetry. The project operates as a “selection” of Jacques Lacan’s classic text (first published in English in 1977) in at least two senses: first, as an editorial selection of approximately half the lectures included in the original volume; second, as a graphical erasure of approximately half the ink used in the original publication of the selected sections, a result achieved by typesetting the volume in a font variation (designed by the artist) which renders visible only part of each printed letter.

In a sense, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-analysis: A Selection attempts to prove the relevance of Lacan’s comments on mimicry (as presented on page 99 of the text, the only page rendered in regular type) to the relationship between textuality and visuality. Concerning the limit beyond which a script ceases to signify and becomes no more than a picture, “It is not a question of harmonizing with the background but, against a mottled background, of becoming mottled—exactly like the technique of camouflage practised in human warfare.”