[Animated discourse]
By: Larry Bell, Guy de Cointet
Publisher: Sure Co.
Published: 1975
Place of publication: Venice, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 145
Subjects: Artists' books; Games in art
Other titles: Dumb ox.; Artforum.
Description: Bell provided Cointet with 29 photographs which Cointet coded into a meaningful text (supposedly a story written by Bell's brother). Each photograph corresponds to an alphabetical letter or to a punctuation sign. The reader must decipher the 60" long code strip, located in pocket inside the back cover, before undertaking the decoding of the book's text.
Notes: Title from Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, and Dumb ox.

Sewn binding; board covers.

Edition size unknown.

"I met Guy sometime around 1965 or 1966 through a woman named Susan Hoffman--aka Viva, who was one of Andy's actresses ... He had just arrived in New York and needed a job. He spoke practically no English, but I liked him so gave it a shot. He worked in my studio for some seven years. Socially during that period, however, he said about seven words to me. He was a very mysterious person ... Not long after Guy stopped working in my studio, I began taking blurry pictures of friends of mine as they moved around that space ... I asked him to convert my pictures into text, making a kind of translation out of them, which ended up as a book called Animated Discourse, 1975 ... We made a key for those interested enough in deciphering it"--from "Who is Guy Cointet?," Artforum, Summer 2007, p. 15-16.

Dumb ox, no. 4, Spring 1977, p. 48

Art Forum Summer, 2007, p. 15-16