The Saddest Thing Is That I Have Had to Use Words

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Madeline Gins (1941-2014), a poet, philosopher, architect, and transdisciplinary artist, is renowned for her collaborations with her husband, Arakawa, on the Reversible Destiny project, aiming to transform the built environment to combat mortality. However, her individual writings—comprising poetry, essays, experimental prose, and philosophical inquiries—are her most visionary contributions. Gins' expansive and playful exploration of language's physicality challenges readers to engage more deeply with the act of writing and reading. Echoing Gertrude Stein, she reimagines grammar and liberates words, while her work aligns with conceptual art, emphasizing the dynamic interaction between reader and text. This anthology, edited by Lucy Ives, features previously unpublished poems and essays alongside a complete facsimile of Gins' 1969 work, WORD RAIN, and significant excerpts from her later books, What the President Will Say and Do!! (1984) and Helen Keller or Arakawa (1994). With many pieces long out of print or unpublished, Gins' writings constitute a powerful body of experimental literature that promises to challenge prevailing narratives of American poetics at the close of the twentieth century.