Rewriting the World: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Book

‘Rewriting the World’ documents the first major exhibition in the United States devoted to the Lettrist book, positioning Isidore Isou (1925–2007) and Lettrism as foundational to the history of artists’ books. Lettrism transformed literature and art by shifting meaning from words to letters and signs, anticipating the later Fluxus, conceptual art, experimental cinema, concrete poetry, comics, and more. Through essays, archival documents, and numerous illustrations, the publication foregrounds the Lettrist book as a site of formal, material, and conceptual experimentation, reframing Isou’s hyper-graphic novels and book objects as essential precedents for post-war and contemporary practices.