In 2019, the François Morellet Prize was awarded to Bernar Venet for his book Poetic? Poetic? Anthologie 1967-2017 published by Jean Boîte.
Poetic? Poetic? Anthology 1967-2017 brings together for the first time the entire production of poetry ever exhibited and rarely published by the French artist Bernar Venet. This sum of 248 poems constitutes an essential marker of the conceptual writing that appeared in the 1960s and with our hindsight positions itself as one of the cornerstones of a major literary shift in the 20th century: writing without writing, the keystone of our relationship to the text in the digital age.
The texts, written in French, English or mathematical language, composed in lists, diagrams or prose that can be appreciated at a purely informative level, are here cut and pasted, the information they carry being moved into the field of poetry. By this gesture, Bernar Venet brings the visual and musical material of pure knowledge to the surface of the page. The lack of understanding of the text or the obsolescence of the information gives this ensemble a poetic force with an encyclopaedic charm.
