Here's Nick Piombino's review from his *fait accompli* ---
With this backdrop, the arrival of Vernon Frazer's monumental *Improvisations* strikes
with the sudden rumble and clap of a thunderbolt, what Edmund Wilson called *the shock of recognition.* At 8 and 3/4 inches wide, and 10 and 3/4 inches tall, the sprawling page layout
comfortably accomodates this enormous 700 page tome, making this book one of the longest and largest work yet of visual poetry-combining nearly every imaginable mesh of print layout and font styles. One would have to go to a number of books by Johanna Drucker to find work of comparable typographical complexity. The constant alternation of formats makes -Improvisations- the most pleasurable book to browse I've seen since Drucker's work and my favoriate classic of the form, Frank Kuenstler's haunting, hard-to-find masterpiece, *Lens*. Reading the texts themselves ! is also consistently engaging, absorbing and amusing-Vernon Frazer is a performance poet working with jazz groups and has published several CD's. As Geof Huth says in his recent interview, there is a fascinating overlap between the aural and the visual in much vispo work, a synaesthetic quality I find fascinating. My only regret is, having to carry some groceries home to Brooklyn from my Manhattan office, along with Frazer's book (I received it very recently and wanted to write about it immediately) the book is so heavy I pulled my back out. But it was worth it! The book is available from *Beneath the Underground* 568 Brittany L, Delray Beach, FL, 33446
With this backdrop, the arrival of Vernon Frazer's monumental *Improvisations* strikes
with the sudden rumble and clap of a thunderbolt, what Edmund Wilson called *the shock of recognition.* At 8 and 3/4 inches wide, and 10 and 3/4 inches tall, the sprawling page layout
comfortably accomodates this enormous 700 page tome, making this book one of the longest and largest work yet of visual poetry-combining nearly every imaginable mesh of print layout and font styles. One would have to go to a number of books by Johanna Drucker to find work of comparable typographical complexity. The constant alternation of formats makes -Improvisations- the most pleasurable book to browse I've seen since Drucker's work and my favoriate classic of the form, Frank Kuenstler's haunting, hard-to-find masterpiece, *Lens*. Reading the texts themselves ! is also consistently engaging, absorbing and amusing-Vernon Frazer is a performance poet working with jazz groups and has published several CD's. As Geof Huth says in his recent interview, there is a fascinating overlap between the aural and the visual in much vispo work, a synaesthetic quality I find fascinating. My only regret is, having to carry some groceries home to Brooklyn from my Manhattan office, along with Frazer's book (I received it very recently and wanted to write about it immediately) the book is so heavy I pulled my back out. But it was worth it! The book is available from *Beneath the Underground* 568 Brittany L, Delray Beach, FL, 33446
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