The purpose of the em dash is wide-ranging —as an appropriation of silence, as acting dissonance, as interruption, as occupying space. This anthology zooms into the pointed use of em dashes in the poems of pioneering Dadaist artist, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874 – 1927). Her poems; performances; costumes and life-style all made a point of challenging extremely challenged bourgeois artistic and moral conventions with an unapologetically feminist, proto-punk aesthetic. The reader will find Elsa’s works in conversation with the likes of well-known dashers such as Gertrude Stein, Laurence Sterne, Heinrich von Kleist or the queen of dashing herself Emily Dickinson.

10 × 14.5 cm, 88pp, English, edition: 400, design by Astrid Seme, no.1 of the Black Forest Library, co-published in connection with the exhibition She Is The Future – An exhibition ignited by Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven at Kunstverein Langenhagen, 2019