Incipit. Scree. Explicit. is a sculptural artist’s book that employs poetry and photography as medium. Literally meaning “(here) begins” and “(here) ends” in Latin, Incipit and Explicit bracket the book with the language of early press culture, while also bleeding into connotations of erotic graphic language. The terms further unsettle themselves on the slope of loose stones called Scree. Formally, the written poems are sonnets, loosening their rhythmic and stanzaic strictures, but maintaining the traditional fourteen-line format and rhyming couplet. Paper, including print-outs of the poems and photographic documentation, is folded, cut, scrunched, moistened, and harnessed according to different weights and tactilities.

Incipit. Scree. Explicit. was created during a collaborative residency between Klara du Plessis and Kadie Salmon at Artexte, Montreal, May 2021. Documentation of the poems and full colour images of artist’s book is available for $25.

A video expansion of Incipit. Scree. Explicit. builds the artist’s book into different poses, overlaid with recitation of six of the poems.

Exhibited at Artexte, Montreal, 14 April-22 June 2023
Exhibited as part of artwords at Gallery at Glen Carlou, Cape Town, 10 September-
5 November 2023