Capitolo Zero

Giovanna Sandri

A key figure—and one of the few women—in the Italian neo-avanguardia movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Giovanna Sandri (1923–2002) was renowned for the fearless experimentation of her visual poetry, which has been featured in numerous Italian collections and journals since the 1960s.

Originally published in 1969 by Lerici Editore in Rome, Capitolo Zero was Sandri’s first book-length work. Composed with dry-transfer lettering instead of a typewriter, it is an experiment in new reading operations. On every page, Sandri dissolves poetry into single letters and punctuation marks—the atomic particles of language—rearranging them in new combinations that preclude conventional meaning. Reading the book is a game for the eyes.

Janani Ambikapathy has written a short review of the book for Poetry Foundation, which can be found here.