Poésie de mots inconnus (Poetry of Unknown Words)

Picasso began writing poetry in 1935 and went on to produce hundreds of poems until he stopped writing in 1959. Two of his poems were featured in Poésie de mots inconnus, an anthology of sound, visual, and concrete poetry from 1910 to 1948. The entire book masquerades as an animate object, imploring the reader to “ne coupez pas mes pages” (do not cut my pages). The editor’s instruction to leave Poésie de mots inconnus unbound collapses the distinction between book and art object, inviting the viewer to actively fold, handle, manipulate, and even rearrange the pages at will.