Tabea Nixdorff, Monique Ulrich:
ERRARE (and some bits of mapping)

Page 31, line 18 should read unintelligible
Page 21, line 3 should read one not on
Page 41, line 3 should read he explained not the explained [1]
HINT:
On page 86 the artist’s name is missing. [2]

errare, meaning “to stray, to wander” is also the Latin ancestor at the root of the words error, erratic, and erroneous. During our residency at Bibliothek Andreas Züst, we continued our collaboration on an ongoing artistic research with the working title ERRARE. Together, we approached the library’s holdings through a wandering reading of paratexts[3] such as dedications, acknowledgements, colophons or editorial notes. These texts account for the labor and collective efforts behind the making of a book. We are interested in unearthing absences and processes of exclusion from literary production.

We started to map out the literary network of (queer) women artists and writers in German-speaking Switzerland and beyond, on the basis of the library holdings of Andreas Züst.

For women, the art and literary world was for a long time only accessible in the roles of muses, copyists, assistants, editors, or under a pseudonym. Inspired by errata,[4] we inserted paper slips into some library books, as a way of sharing fragments of our research and linking books with each other, allowing future readers to retrace these hidden alliances.

Departing from this research, we continue to send new paper slips to the library. We are also writing on an essay and are creating a sound and voice based performance, in which the paratextual findings unfold.

 

For you, M. [5]

There are always many people involved
in the creation of any book, but special thanks are due (…) [6]

Annette hat mich ermutigt, einen zweiten Band von
WO DIE NACHT DEN TAG UMARMT zu wagen.
Sonja schenkte dem Buch seinen Titel — in letzter Minute.
Ulrike hat Korrektur gelesen.
Doris half mir im Büro beim Verträgeschreiben
und Beantworten der vielen Post.
Und ich? Ja, ich habe mich sehr gefreut, dieses Buch zu machen. [7]

NETZ-familie
«bruchlandung» [8]

Meiner Mutter,
meiner Frau,
meiner Tochter [9]

Ich danke meiner Schwester Diana, meiner Großmutter, [10]

Für Gertrud H. [11]

Für Nicole Stéphane [12]

Meine teuren Mutter, dem heiligsten Stern über meinem Leben [13]

Für Angelika Oehms [14] 

Au lecteur, ces amers d’une route déjà longue [15]

Für Ester Altorfer, zerbrechliches Feuer des Wassers [16]

Für S., meine Große [17] 

Dieses Buch ist den Walen gewidmet.
This book is dedicated to the whales.
Ce livre est dédié aux baleines. [18]

 an die Geliebten [19]

 

Text: Tabea Nixdorff und Monique Ulrich
November 2022

 

Monique Ulrich is an artist, editor and researcher with a background in photography and literary/cultural studies. Her artistic practice comprises writing, drawing and film as notation, installations as well as sound and language based performances.

Tabea Nixdorff is an artist, typographer and feminist researcher, currently living in the Netherlands. Her artistic practice involves writing, (self)publishing, sound and language based performances, collaborative learning and social gatherings.

Tabea and Monique started collaborating in 2018 and have since then conducted performative readings in Berlin at diffract – center for theoretical periphery, during the Conceptual Poetics Day at HKW, in Leipzig at KV-Verein für zeitgenössische Kunst and ROTORBOOKS, and in Frankfurt/Main as part of the book fair program by Spector Books and Scriptings.

Footnotes
[1] Errata in: Cogniant, Raymond ; Rewald, John : Paul Gauguin. A Sketchbook. New York : Hammer, 1962. Sig. KAAG 07
[2] Errata in: Interfunktionen Heft 9, Köln : Heubach, (o.J.) Sig. ZO 019
[3] Paratexts are everything that’s ‘beside’ (para in Greek) the body of the work, or book. So, for example the title, dust jacket, foreword or colophon.
[4] An errata is a slip of paper appended to a book listing corrections of misprints.
[5] Sontag, Susan : I, etcetera. New York : Vintage Books, 1978. Sig. LABH S08x
[6] A Treasury of Chinese Literature . Greenwich : Fawcett Premier Book, 1972. Sig. VHEC 02
[7] Lorez, Gudula (Hrsg.): Hautfunkeln . Erotische Phantasien und Geschichten von Frauen. Berlin : Lorez, 1982. Sig. MO 021
[8] Friederike Mayröcker, in: Zwischen den Zeilen Nr. 3/1994 : Hermann Burger, Michael Buselmeier, Elke Erb, Albert Ostermaier, Jürgen Theobaldy, Bartolo Cattafi. Winterthur : Engeler, 1994. Sig. ZB 001
[9] Meinecke, Thomas : Tomboy : Roman. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 1998. Sig. LABA M14x
[10] Charles, Paula : Go, Josephine, go. Zürich : Limmat, 1993. Sig. LABC C025
[11] Mehr, Mariella: Brandzauber : Roman. Zürich : Magel & Kimche, 1998. Sig. LABC M007
[12] Sontag, Susan : Über Fotografie. München : Hanser, 1978. Sig. LBH 018
[13] Lasker-Schüler, Else : Die gesammelten Gedichte, München : Wolff, 1920. Sig. LABA L005
[14] Nordhausen, Hilka : Melonen für Bagdad. Ostheim / Rhön : Engstler, 1990. Sig. KACN 002
[15] Braque, Georges : Le jour et la nuit : cahiers 1917–1952. Paris : Édition Gallimard, 1952. Sig. KAAB 021
[16] Esther Altorfer 1936–1988. Bern : Salchli, 1989. Sig. KAEA 003
[17]  Lorez, Gudula (Hrsg.): Hautfunkeln . Erotische Phantasien und Geschichten von Frauen. Berlin : Lorez, 1982. Sig. MO 021
[18] Emch, Nik : M. Zürich : Bilger, 1995. Sig. KADE 002
[19] Berent, Hella : Rom, Exil der Heiterkeit 1985–1992, Bielefeld : Kerber, 1992. Sig. KACB 003