Page 55 - Studio International - March April 1975

There is, of course, a difference
between following out the dictates of
a predetermined principle and
judging on the basis of educated
preference whether things should be
this way or that. But system is not an
alternative to sensibility. It may be
that an ordered assemblage of facts
or procedure of working defers
certain 'aesthetic' decisions to a
level other than that on which the art
is experienced; but whether system
is a means of coordinating formally
disparate elements or itself becomes
the central content of the art, the
production of the work at all implies
an act of judgement and its
achievement can only be attested on
that basis.
Gerald Ferguson's best-known work is
one that also occupies a central position
in his art. The Standard Corpus of Present
Day English Language Usage, arranged by
word length and alphabetized within word
length, 1970, is a fairly large book, with
115 evidently duplicated letter-size pages
in a glossy paper cover. It has the floppy
feel of an engineering manual, or at least
of a very practical sort of book. In the assure maximum vertical continuity and of the object as well as the devisor of the
library at Nova Scotia College of Art and the paper rolled back to start the next. In system, and at the end he exercises a
Design (Gerald Ferguson's home base), the process one column may drift slightly visual judgement as to the acceptability of
one copy is shelved among the to the left; another to the right — or the the results. Dual criteria apply. The piece
dictionaries; the author speculates that it space between lines may widen to about must proclaim its total respect for system
might be useful to concrete poets or half-way down and then start to correct but at the same time achieve a self-
someone might wish to consult it when itself. On close scrutiny the theoretical sufficiency of formal interest. So, too, if
filling in a crossword puzzle. It is as if the uniformity breaks down into a complex of every word in the corpus is not typed by
artist had constructed his own ready- minute progressions of change that his own hand, every page was vetted by
made, but that is not to say the visual establish their own rhythmic inertia and him — accepted or rejected on the basis of
aspects are unimportant, or that they are differentiate even those sections where a direct visual judgement.
even left totally to chance. words in two columns may fall The dot paintings employ a standard
The material for the book came from a momentarily in step. fitting from a hardware store; one of them
study made at Brown University in 1961. The strategy and the effect are those is executed on an irregular sheet of
Gerald Ferguson's only contribution at reflecting paintings Ferguson had been greenish brown wrapping paper that
that level was to add the word 'dada', engaged on for more than a year. might well just have been left over when
which failed to show up among the 500 Paintings sprayed through individual he sent off his last Christmas gift, or a
sample passages used by Brown. He also letter stencils came as early as the fall of package of drawings for exhibition, but
sorted out the words according to length, 1968. At about the same time he had the ready-made aspects scarcely impinge
counting the hyphen in compound words produced a sculpture of standard metal on the finished work. Albeit the materials
as an extra letter. The book was typed corner-beading units. As part of its and methods are eccentric and
rather than printed because the documentation (when it was impractical distinctive, the works are unmistakably
typewriter spaces letters regularly, to send the piece itself to an exhibition), `paintings', the aesthetic of the corpus has
whereas the printer's fount makes more he sprayed paint through the metal grid. its painterly aspects, but it is equally
subtle adjustments that may give a He did not like the pattern much, but the definitely not a painting, and it opens new
better visual balance to individual words shop had another sort of beading with a ranges of interest and experience quite
but would interrupt the uniform single row of circular holes down the side. beyond their scope.
tabulation of marks across the page. This formed the basis of a series of 'dot' However much attention is paid to the
Capitals are used throughout. Typing paintings that are among his most marks on the page they are not just marks,
begins att in. from the top and from the impressive works. The beading is but words. As words that depend on the
left; columns leave a t in. margin at the generally used vertical so it guarantees a fact of their currency in actual language,
bottom and proceed until the next one certain continuity of marks in that they produce their own sporadically
would come within t in. of the right edge. direction, but the density of the spray discontinuous permutations of letter
The typing is single-spaced vertically and varies, and the columns may tilt a bit to forms. The distinctive angularity of the
only a single space is left between left or right. In one work ten such double 'Z' in the sequence PUZZLED
columns. Everything is standardized and columns appear side by side with the dots PUZZLER PUZZLES may catch the
regularized to produce the most dropping a little to the right on each eye and briefly energize the middle of that
mechanical possible disposition. If the occasion and then the eleventh jumps up page, but then the next word PYHRRIC
results are in fact full of the most subtle and starts off another set and so on, to a halts the rhythm completely. Moreover
variations, that is because the machine total of sixty across the piece. Suggestions words are not just visual images but the
operates within distinctly perceptible of optically induced linearities and graphic indication of a conjunction of
margins of error that may cause certain perspectives are generated internally, sounds and meanings, and these provide
letters generally to come out darker than while the top and bottom achieve an an overlay of more complex patterns.
others, and still admit variations in the exaggerated irregularity as the spray There is a certain parallelism of shape
form of a single letter, in response to the misses a couple of holes in one column and sounds but also more extreme
changing surface texture of the paper, the and catches an extra one elsewhere. The disjunctions. As the criterion of length is
condition of the ribbon at that particular piece develops the look of that other sort number of letters, so it may bring within
point and the touch of the typist; of art that confronts the issue of the same classification a one-syllable word
infrequently a letter may jump out of appearance head on as a judgement of like DRAUGHT and the four-syllable
place or a mistake may have to be taste — and to a point it is. ABILITY. Meaning embraces still
corrected. The system is respected throughout, greater leaps, but also some subtle
Each column is typed complete to but Gerald Ferguson himself is the maker transformations of sense: REGALED ►
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