mnmlst tpgraphy m(vi) pstrs

I like to exclaim that visual poetry is everywhere, and apparently I am right, having stumbled across a set of minimalist typography movie posters. The play in these virtual movie posters is similar to that of hardcore minimalist visual poetry. Something that I might do, or endwar, and different from the rigid constructions of mid-century concrete.


But the goal is different and so is the use of text. In minimalist visual poetry typography is key, but the play is with the word as a source of meaning and meaning-mangling or the play is with the image but non-representationally so. In these truly great little posters, something like a visual pun is at play. Text is used to depict some visual thing, but this is done in a way so restrictive so as to make some of the posters briefly difficult to interpret. The image for The Shawshank Redemption is nothing but two single quotation marks (or two apostrophes) resting upside-down and mirroring one another. They form a lock to represent the incarceration of our two protagonists, who are also represented each as one half of the lock.


The poster for Hand 'Em High, does have the merest echo of words in it. The two miniscule aitches that make up this poster represent the two major words of the title: "hang" and "high." Yet the most important part of the poster is to represent something from the film, in this case, hanging (of them) high.

I know, deep in my body somewhere, what the meaning is of these two parentheses resting against each other, resembling a pair of hands in prayer. The film here is Basic Instinct, and I know that parentheses do not play a major role in its plot. Deep inside me, though, I still feel some attraction to this simple image.

I can feel it pulling me into itself.

ecr. l'inf.