AshehougAgency

Let There Be World

LET THERE BE WORLD is conclusion of a visual poetry project Wærness has been working on since 2002, a combination of text and images in the form of collages of illustrations and carvings from old books, clearly inspired by the surrealist art of Max Ernst. Early versions of the work have been published in several Scandinavian magazines and anthologies.

The book can be read as one long poem, and as a parallel to the collection EACH OTHER’S from 2006. As in his earlier books, Wærness explores the prerequisites of poetry, often in dialogical form.

Praise for LET THERE BE WORLD:

“LET THERE BE WORLD is a powerful and beautiful book – and an interesting exploration of the relationship between text and image. Some of the book pages make me want to put them up on the wall, in a larger format. And fragments of the poems are stuck in my head, refusing to let me go.”
(Aftenposten)

“Powerful visionary poetry. Gunnar Wærness’ LET THERE BE WORLD is a poetic triumph; the most interesting collection of poetry you can read this year. […] a book that takes my breath away, in the same way as William Blake […] Gunnar Wærness has become one of the most important poets of his generation.”
(Vårt land)

First published: 2008, Aschehoug Fiction
Gunnar Wærness: Biography and bibliography

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