#so mayer

[garadinervi]

Ursula K. Le Guin, Draft for the labyrinth of 'The Tombs of Atuan', with note, (ink on paper), ca. 1970 [© Estate of Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation; Courtesy University of Oregon Libraries and Ursula K Le Guin Foundation], in The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin Explored in New Exhibition and Book, Fine Books & Collections, October 1, 2025

Book: The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin, Edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin, AA Publications / Spiral House, London, 2025; Contributors: Federico Campagna, Theo Downes-Le Guin, Daniel Heath Justice, Bhanu Kapil, Canisia Lubrin, Una McCormack, David Naimon, Nisha Ramayya, Shoshone Collective, Standard Deviation, Marilyn Strathern

Exhibition: The Word for World, Curated by Sarah Shin, Designed by Standard Deviation, AA Gallery, London, October 10, 2025 – December 6, 2025, supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

[the-final-sentence]

Dare to survive.

So Mayer, from “Floccinaucinihilipilification”

[tasavvur]

Trauma remains in the body — the mind-body. It could be said that trauma, painfully, reveals that body is also mind, affect, spirit; that all four meet at the point of knives. This is not to endorse that violence, but to mark how far we have come from living in our multiple, attuned bodies. Trauma is, in or behind many of these spells, the broken open: the realisation of how great is the need to find the right words to record and transform; how great is the power inside us, the power that the violence comes to steal and erase.

So Mayer, ‘Introduction: The Broken Open’, published in Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry. Published by Ignota Press, 2018.

[alwaysalreadyangry]

from So Mayer’s introduction to Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry

[garadinervi]

Ursula K. Le Guin, Orsinia, the Ten Provinces, unpublished, for 'Malafrena', (ink and typewriter text on tracing paper), 1979 [© Estate of Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation], in The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin Explored in New Exhibition and Book, Fine Books & Collections, October 1, 2025

[garadinervi]

Ursula K. Le Guin, Hemispheres of Gethen, unpublished, for 'The Left Hand of Darkness', (ink on typewriter paper), 1969 [© Estate of Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation], in The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin Explored in New Exhibition and Book, Fine Books & Collections, October 1, 2025

[garadinervi]

Ursula K. Le Guin, Talismanic map of the Valley, with place names, (ink on paper), 1985 [© Estate of Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation], in The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin Explored in New Exhibition and Book, Fine Books & Collections, October 1, 2025

Book: The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin, Edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin, AA Publications / Spiral House, London, 2025; Contributors: Federico Campagna, Theo Downes-Le Guin, Daniel Heath Justice, Bhanu Kapil, Canisia Lubrin, Una McCormack, David Naimon, Nisha Ramayya, Shoshone Collective, Standard Deviation, Marilyn Strathern

Exhibition: The Word for World, Curated by Sarah Shin, Designed by Standard Deviation, AA Gallery, London, October 10, 2025 – December 6, 2025, supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

[garadinervi]

The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin, Edited by So Mayer and Sarah Shin, AA Publications / Spiral House, London, 2025

Contributors: Federico Campagna, Theo Downes-Le Guin, Daniel Heath Justice, Bhanu Kapil, Canisia Lubrin, Una McCormack, David Naimon, Nisha Ramayya, Shoshone Collective, Standard Deviation, Marilyn Strathern

Exhibition: The Word for World, Curated by Sarah Shin, Designed by Standard Deviation, AA Gallery, London, October 10, 2025 – December 6, 2025, supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

↗ The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation