Friday, June 27, 6-8pm
Free

Proteotypes’ Libellulæ series brings creaturely new texts to life, and we are very proud to have A Subset of Chance as our latest and fifth. A far-flung, full-frenzy poem, A Subset of Chance dips a web woven of geography and philosophy into the polychromic vat of language. In it Martin Nakell obeys two constraints you might think hard to combine. The first, derived from Chaos Theory, posits that “any arbitrarily small perturbation of the current trajectory will lead to significantly different future composition.” The second is the rigorous Kabbalistic procedure of gematria, whereby letters are given their numerical value. Martin will read, explain, and sign copies.

Please join us this Friday evening to meet Martin and send this new Libellula whirring out into the world! There will be wine and snacks.

Martin Nakell is an award-winning poet and novelist who believes that the experience of art is energy – in literary art an energy achieved by discovering a language new to each work, a discovery which can be achieved by submitting the language to a turbulence. His books includeThe Library of Thomas Rivka (Sun &Moon), The Myth of Creation (Parentheses Writing Series), Ramon (Jawbone Press), Two Fields that Face & Mirror Each Other (Green Integer), Goings (Margin-to-Margin Press), Form, Settlement, and Tautological Eye (all Spuyten Duyvil). He is married to the writer Rebecca Goodman and lives in Orange, CA.

The battles fought at night between white and black witches. The battle fought at bedtime between a newly married royal couple. The battle fought in subway stations with poisoned chewing gum. The battle fought with children in a dream. The culture war fought as an emergent species struggles for recognition as a civilized kind. The key battles of such “secret wars” will be the matter read aloud from translations of Czech, Japanese, American, Italian, and Old Irish crypto-military histories. Organized by Wendy Walker, editor of Proteotypes, the publishing arm of Proteus Gowanus.

Proteotypes editor Tom LaFarge will conduct an instructional Diplomacy workshop in the Proteus Gowanus War Games Room. Diplomacy is a board game set in Europe just before WW1 requiring both negotiation and strategy in order to win. This workshop is intended for those who would like to learn the basic rules of play. When you’ve learned the basics, you can play the game in our War Games Room, Saturdays and Sunday, 12-6pm. Class fee: $7

Join us for wine and conversation to launch Proteotypes’ new publication, Cryptozoo. In this handsome feuilleton twelve writers have undertaken to respond to twelve images from Erik Schurink’s “Cryptozoo” portfolio. With his mind on paradise, theme of a Proteus Gowanus show he was co-curating, he started to notice animals coming out of hiding as if summoned. They emerged from sidewalks, walls, and streets, from bits of industrial scrap, from wire window-grates, from rust stains and scuffings in dust, and posed briefly for his camera.

When Proteotypes editor Tom LaFarge saw them, he knew these animals wanted to inhabit a book, so they invited writers to answer one particular image, chosen for them by lot. Come to the reception to view the charming results and stay for a glass of wine or two.

James Walsh, a longtime friend of Proteus Gowanus as well as a founder/collaborator of Observatory, has just brought out his latest book, There was Something in the Weather, in the Libellulæ series published by Proteotypes, our print arm.

There was Something in the Weather consists of extracts from the early journals of John Ruskin, the most influential art critic of 19^th century Britain. These entries, however, were written when Ruskin was sixteen and making his first journey to Switzerland and Italy, shortly after having been denied the love of Adèle-Clotilde Domecq, daughter of his father’s partner. By using a traced-type calligraphy and reformatting journal entries as lines of verse, James Walsh has moved Ruskin’s text nearer the reader and brought out the suppressed feeling in what might otherwise appear neutral observations of rocks, buildings, glaciers, and skies.

James will read, and there’ll be wine and refreshments. Copies of There was Something in the Weather will be available for purchase and signing.

Proteotypes, the publishing division of Proteus Gowanus, is delighted to announce the publication of a long-awaited new book, Museum of Matches, by Sasha Chavchavadze.

Join us for a celebration at Proteus Gowanus.

In this non-linear memoir, Chavchavadze, an interdisciplinary artist and founder of Proteus Gowanus, creates a “pocket museum,” an archive of anecdote, artwork, artifacts, documents and photographs, opening windows into several historical moments as she searches for matches between past and present.

As the author points out, “Each of us inherits a museum of matches. Each of us is touched by war. My museum of matches contains a collection of images snapshots of reality, tossed on the floor like coins of the I-Ching. Out of the seeming chaos I watch for relationships and patterns to form.”

Enjoy wine and refreshments, and take a tour of the Museum of Matches, a one-room Cold War museum. Formerly an annex to the gallery, the Museum has now re-opened as a project-in-residence at Proteus Gowanus.

Visit the book on the Proteotypes website.