spirale 9

Here’s a publication we didn’t know about until it was delivered to our door. Published in Bern between 1953 and 1964, spirale was a seminal international journal dedicated to concrete art, systemic design, and the emerging field of concrete poetry. It encouraged a move away from expressive abstraction toward a mathematical and geometric rationality. (Is that redundant?)

This one serves as the final, valedictory issue of spirale and is a departure from the editorial structure of previous editions. Functioning more as an artist’s multiple than a traditional journal, this issue is centered around a kinetic work by Marcel Wyss. It features a set of five transparent acetate sheets printed with linear drawings that can be overlaid and rotated by the reader to create an infinite variety of geometric constellations. This interactive transparency set is introduced with a text by Karl Gerstner, who also designed the striking all-lowercase typographic advertisement for Schwitter on the rear cover. By focusing on the interplay of transparency, movement, and viewer participation, the final issue encapsulates the journal’s transition from documenting concrete art to becoming a physical manifestation of it. It remains a high point of Swiss production, signed by Wyss (although we thought it was a random pencil squiggle and we almost erased it) and marking the formal conclusion of one of the most significant records of post-war European constructive design. A spectacular thing with a great section of advertisements.

Watch a flip-through of the whole thing here »