The poet Joel Lipman fights against tyranny, the
tyranny of the book, the page, the iconic text. His visual poems
confront the hypocrisies, injustices, ironies of society. And what
would he supplant these with: a lyrical ecstasy, a playful joy, a
passion for life, women and song.
In 1996, Luna Bisconte Prods of Columbus, Ohio published The Real Ideal, a collection of Joel's translitic poems. His poetry and visual language work have appeared in Fiction International, World Letter, Texture, Poetry Motel, New American Writing. and many other literary magazines and anthologies.
Joel presented "Paul Klee's Point of Origin & Writer's Beginnings" at the Visual Literacies Session of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Washington, D.C. His next paper will be "Romancing the Page: Strategies in Contemporary Artist Books." His recent sabbatical was partly spent in the Pecos River Valley where he was inspired by petroglyphs and painted rocks.
In 1995, Joel Lipman was promoted to full professor at the University of Toledo. Also in 1995, his "Jesse Helms' Body," a collection of thirty-five bookworks, was exhibited at the Picasso-Gaglioni Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco.* The gallery also produced a limited edition catalogue.
Machete Chemistry/Panades Physics a collaboration between Joel and Belize poet Yasser Musa, was published in 1994 by Cubola New Art Foundation. They hope to eventually produce a CD, set to music by Belize's Ivan Duran.