I've made a number of text-based works which employ various substitutions/manipulations of standard Roman type: reversal, inversion, blurring, phonetics and in this case, shorthand. I've long been interested in the denial of textual meaning and the redirection of attention to the "form" of type, not in order to undermine or frustrate but to dislodge or separate the "mark" from its literal meaning.

Shorthand Basho evolved from such ideas and from a consideration of translation and the notion of compression and condensation of experience or information (partly through an interest in how binary information is "compressed" and "extracted"). Basho, like many (perhaps all) poets was interested in stripping down expression to an essential form. But at what point does such condensation result in degradation or loss?

In Shorthand Basho, even though the meaning has been shifted to a latent form within the code of the shorthand text the calligraphic script re-introduces aspects of cursive mark-making ordinarily lost through western typographic representation.

Edition of 1000, £7.50 each

To buy a copy (free postage & packing) please contact:
basho@jimhamlyn.co.uk