From Book to Book, A Journey in the Text

As the "libretto" of spoken and projected text utilized in the stage version represented only a small percentage of the material contained within the 765 chosen biographies, it had long been my desire to realize both a "paper" and an "electronic" version which would adequately present the complexity and depth of the original book. Parallel to presentations of this material in other media, I attempted to reflect the metaphor of "hypertext" and intra-linearity on paper for the publication of a book by Janus Press in Berlin (with support from Bild-Kunst, eV.) The book, which took over two years in preparation, was published in early 1995.

In creating a new groundwork, the originally selected 765 biographies were reorganized into a more sophisticated organization (in Filemaker Pro for Macintosh) as had been used in writing the "libretto" for the performance some years before. The system of categories were revised extensively and lists of new "keywords" were created out of renewed readings of the biographies and through the use of "search engines" and word frequency analysis. The revised system of categories and newly created word lists were then used in creating the final text for this book. The process was one of "sifting" through and "whittled down" in a subtractive process which I liken to "mining for gold". One accepts the limits of the "book", working only with the words and fragments which the original contributors wrote themselves. Each fragment takes on varying meanings when presented within a different context. With word searches one throws the dice, each time turning up new and often unexpected gains of significance and colors of variation, dredging up more and more material, most of which must finally be "thrown away" to reveal the essence of a theme.

In conceiving of a basic visual and functional structure for this "new" book, I was greatly inspired by the printed form of the Jewish Talmud and of much Medieval Rabbinical Bible Literature. Here one finds, on a single page, central "source" texts from Torah surrounded by multiple "peeled onion skin" layers of often conflicting commentary and interpretation in an endless ongoing conversation carried out over centuries internationally. Excerpts and text fragments are often cross-referenced to related pages and topics in other sections and volumes. One has the sense of entering an information network of ever increasing complexity, in which all individual elements connect to each other in a kind of medieval "hypertext". It a model which demonstrated to me a possibility for Hyper-textuality in two-dimensional book form. (Indeed, I have only recently discovered that much of this material is now being issued within a Hypertext structure by a computer software firm in the United States).
The result is a book which could perhaps be read from beginning to end in a linear fashion though it was designed with non-linear readings in mind. The Layout invites the Reader to scan topics, text fragments, and images (from my collection of private "found" photographs from Central & East Europe); and to take the initiative to follow cross-references or pure chance associations to other topics and to the multiple occasions where a given text fragment may appear in differing contexts. Multiple readings or navigations through the 765 biographies are therefore not only possible, but encouraged. The text elements are divided into three parts each having their own locations in the layout:

1. On the bottom of each page reference material from the 765 selected biographies are printed in alphabetical and numerical order. Indications are given as to the pages on which these persons also appear as text fragments.
2. Text fragments from the 765 Biographies are arranged according to topic. Indications are given as to pages on which these persons also appear within other topics.
3. Lists of factual information are culled from the biographical data and are arranged by topic. Indications are given as to the pages on which these persons also appear are given.
4. Indexes and topic cross-references are integrated into the structure of the book itself and are to be found by scanning the table of contents, and the page headings.

I created an "electronic" version of this book (without images) within a hypertext "point and click" architecture in the American program "Storyspace" (15) in 1994 which included 4,947 links.

Continue: The Arena of Memory

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