Journal archive

Abstract: The book Насквозь / Through by Lyudmila Rusova (1954–2010) was printed in 1999 in 500 numbered copies on designer paper, with the graphic works, a special composition, lexis and punctuation, a general, “through” author’s concept. Art critics qualify the edition as an art book. The article presents this genre definition as a problem. The notions of “book of the artist”, livre d’artiste, art-book are not synonymous, and the concept of “art-book” puts on the first place the generalized idea of syncretism of arts. L. Rusova’s poetry, however, has an artistic valuable in itself. Her poetic language has a number of typologically common properties with the poetry of G. Aygi and A. Dragomoshchenko, at the same time it is original and diverse. This is the first time that a literary study of the material has been undertaken. In the article the book Through is analyzed within the framework of the theory of the book of poems and ekphrasis. In light of the theory of the book of poems revealed the properties of the title, the composition of the book, the means of cycling, the independence of individual parts and their role within a single whole, established artistic properties of this unity. Accompanying texts for performances, graphic works, which were exhibited separately, in the book space acquire the features of poems or asemic writing. The link between poetic texts and the ideas of L. Rusova’s performances, the transformation of not originally poetic texts, and the formation of the book’s leitmotif canvas connected with performative practices have also been established. All texts of the book are an ekphrasis, verbally expressing pictorial works, photographs, graphics, actions of L. Rusova herself and other artists as well as Minsk of the 1990s is a city hostile to the artist. The book can be considered as a holistic ecfrasis, as an expression of different creative hypostases of L. Rusova, who knows her own work poetically. The book Through after publication was used by the author as an art object in photography, collages, and performances.