It is understood that words carry a multiplicity of meanings and, therefore, can be seen as vague. Kitasono Katue, a seminal figure in Japanese visual poetry has said, “Words are the most uncertain signals devised by human beings for communication.” This uncertainty parallels the uncertainty of experience and opens up a work to many interpretations thus broadening its scope.

I am interested in this opening up, in the inductive possibilities of language. For me, language exists between its source (be it page, computer screen, billboard, speaker, etc.) and its receptor. Because it is outside of both source and receptor, it requires both to activate meaning. There is relationship needed for language to function.

I use an economy of means so that the words are not unnecessarily burdened and are free to function in their surroundings. This conjunction of meaning and environment becomes a new entity with attributes all its own.

Traditionally, language appears as black letters on white. This format appeals to me. It introduces the notion of opposites. Mallarme interpreted printed texts as precincts of sound (words) and silence (white areas). I prefer to view this arrangement more as complemetary, each component being the result of the other. This then is a natural balance, good physics: a kind of quantum literature.

I make objects in order to give words a more physical presence. I am interested in re-linking words and things. Emerson says, “Words and deeds are indifferent modes of the divine activity.” Words and the objects they signify are two aspects of one entity.

Word-objects move language from noetic space to real space. Physical presence denotes duration in time, but it is assumed that the language incorporated into these objects will somehow outlive the objects themselves. Language is not finite.

The ultimate goal is simple communication made possible by the intrinsic poetry of words. There is an old Chinese adage: “Only plain food has real taste.”