The Book of i´s (1969/1998)

Ti­tle of the album: The Book of i's
Ti­tle: The Book of i's (Track 01)
Publisher: Alga Marghen, Milano
Da­te: 1969/1998
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm
Edition: 240

The piece The Book of i's is the acoustic version of the artist's book of the same name by José Luis Castillejo from 1969. The artist's book was written during the time he worked as an embassy secretary at the Spanish embassy in Bonn. He had the book self-published. The acoustic version of The Book of i's is based on the text of the artist's book and was created in 1998. Castillejo himself took over the recitation of the text.

The artist's book The Book of i's is the first to be based on only one letter and, in this respect, represents a caesura. According to Castillejo, it was produced at the Konstanz printing and publishing house, Am Fischmarkt, in Germany. Blank pages and pages with an "i" printed in the middle of the page alternate at irregular intervals. In the acoustic version, Castillejo can only be heard speaking the letter "i" over and over again. The Book of i's is the first of four pieces on the LP of the same name.

The letter acquires its own singular materiality in Castillejo's work. The letter in itself has no direct meaning in terms of content; content is only generated through its combination. As such, it is a sign, comparable to an object. In the acoustic presentation, the letter itself receives a new space for action, it performs itself. In its linguistic materiality and the conceptual use of a single letter, The Book of i's is an auditory poem of Concrete Poetry. The focus on the single letter means, at the same time, a reduction of the most necessary things that make up a poem or work. The preoccupation with the materiality of language is based on the removal of a letter from its traditional environment to create new literary-artistic forms in connection with visual-artistic and acoustic practices.

With this acoustic work, José Luis Castillejo took up the time and artistic ideas of the Zaj Group. For the artist's record The Book of i's, the artist and musician Walter Marchetti took over both the production of the sound files and the organisation and coordination between José Luis Castillejo and Emanuele Carcano, a record publisher from Milan who is interested in experimental sounds by artists. The artist record contains readings by José Luis Castillejo himself from the already existing artist's books The Book of i's, A Book of a Book and The Book of Eighteen Letters.

ATJ