Figuring the word : essays on books, writing, and visual poetics / Johanna Drucker.

Includes bibliographical references.

Johanna Drucker is among the foremost authorities on the history of alphabets, writing, artists' books and visual poetry. This book is a compendium of Drucker's thought. Yet rather than anthologize from her numerous published books, Figuring the Wordcollects writings only previously found in academic and literary journals, as well as transcriptions of her lectures and interviews. The book is divided into sections, each with several chapters, which include "Writing as Artifact," "Visual Poetics," "Artists' Books Past and Future" and "The Future of Writing." None of the work in Figuring the Wordhas ever been published in book form before, and yet it extends and reveals the already broad range of Drucker's voracious and penetrating intellect.