Antwerp

There's a remainder/secondhand bookshop along from the Rubens museum and it's delivered one or two surprises in the past (Jonathan Williams' Mahler, a collection of Joseph Cornell dreams, an Olson or two). However, today was beyond expectations: first, 2000 BC The Bruce Conner Story Part II (a sumptuous catalogue of the Walker Art Show), second - amazingly - Jess, To and From the Printed Page with contributions by John Ashbery, Lisa Jarnot and Thomas Evans (frankly, a book I thought I'd never get hold of).



It's one of those occasions when you feel as though your hand is being guided - why did I think of going upstairs? Why did I think of looking down at the very bottom shelf under 'J'? What the hell are these books doing in a bookshop like this in Antwerp of all places? "Of all the bookshops in all the towns ... ".

Once again I'm reminded how books can be occasions - or rather constellations. The pleasure is not one of acquisitiveness or of the bargain hunter (neither volume was cheap). It's something else - as of names, energies and forces being focused. Text + time + space = .



Later, at lunch, I notice the 'bolleke' of de Koninck bears a hand (palm facing) on the base and inner rim.