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You may now order the paperback version of The Body Problem here: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/cre-wells-and-letitia-trent/the-body-problem/paperback/product-k2eqqy.html?page=1&pageSize=4 “Wells and Trent wander through ruins of a medical dictionary, digitalia, and collage to create a severe pose as commentary on destruction and decay of the body–and the body as phenomena. Wells, in his introduction, says ‘with art comes form, and with form come limits.’ And is not the body limited by the only human surety: death? But, ultimately it is all about creation. I applaud the aesthetic of this collection of riveting images. Another required text for Asemia and Visual Poetry.” –Kristine Snodgrass, author of RANK “A brilliant exercise in both repetition and symmetry… Wells applies Trent’s words to the page over and over in ways that remind the reader/viewer of the different effects that happen in a hall of mirrors. There is always another place to turn and look again from a new perspective.” –Amanda Laughtland, publisher of Teeny Tiny Press

Page 128 from The Body Problem. Paperback and hardcover versions of the entire sequence are available here.

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In a public Patreon post, Letitia Trent shares her preface and some images from The Body Problem. Please check out her post (and, of course, consider supporting her on Patreon, if you can afford it).

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Hello everyone: I hope to continue designing and publishing more books for many years to come. One way you could support me (and any of my collaborators) is by buying a book, writing a review, or spreading the word.

Pages 54 from The Body Problem, now available here in both paperback and hardcover editions. Thank you for your support.

On *The Body Problem*

The Body Problem presents the human body (as experienced by individuals, and as medicalized by science) as a series of diagrams from a dusty reference manual with its pages disintegrating in front of our eyes. These visual poems also ask us to take up the body like a hand of cards to hold or play, or maybe to trade in a bureaucratic exchange familiar to those who read Kafka and/or the guidelines for recipients of Medicare Part A and B.

The book is a brilliant exercise in both repetition and symmetry, as Letitia Trent’s lines of poetry are visible only as fragments of sometimes just a few words and other times just a few letters. What phrases are legible must bear a lot of weight, and they do this well, as in the repeated, “My breathing.” C.R.E. Wells applies Trent’s words to the page over and over in ways that remind the reader/viewer of the different effects that happen in a hall of mirrors. There is always another place to turn and look again from a new perspective.

Trent and Wells both work in multiple genres, and their versatility of thinking shows here as the combination of forms involve different methods of physical and digital creation. The capacity that digital means provide Wells to break down the physical text evokes the breakdown of the human body with illness and time. But there’s also the sense of an opening for healing or renewal as typewritten text overtakes the digital and restores a feeling of more physicality.

The expanse of the digital and the limits of the physical make thematic sense in these times when medical students can learn anatomy from virtual reality games. And the gaming theme is a throwback to older times, too, with many of the collages presented four-up on a page, like the reader has been dealt them.

Even the deck of playing cards that Wells has layered into the collages starts to fall apart, such that the red of the suits of hearts and diamonds starts to look more and more like blood. In the end, we can’t separate the body from our individual ideas of it as well as the ideas and schematics imposed on it by others. --Amanda Laughtland, Teeny Tiny Press * A paperback of The Body Problem is available for purchase at Lulu. Thank you for your support.