CARNIVAL : THE FIRST PANEL 1967-70 by McCaffery, Steve - 1973

Toronto: The Coach House Press, 1973. First Edition. Softcover. Very good. 28.5 cm. [18] leaves, first and last leaf printed black, recto and verso, center leaves printed black and red, recto only. Errata leaf and promotional/instructional postcard laid in. Printed card covers, side-stapled. Covers lightly toned and lightly worn; lower-right corner of front cover creased. Internally near fine. Overall very good.

The first major published work of British-Canadian poet Steve McCaffery (born 1947), a member, together with bp Nichol, Paul Dutton, and Rafael Bareto-Rivera of the sound-poetry collective, The Four Horsemen, and, with Nichol, a co-founder of the Toronto Research Group. The published book contains 16 sheets composed entirely on McCaffery's typewriter (sandwiched between two copies of the 1920 De Stijl Manifesto and McCaffery's artist's biography) that, removed and assembled together, create the final work, which may be seen in miniature on the instructional postcard laid in. The instructions establish the work squarely as an "anti-book": "In order to destroy this book please tear each page carefully along the perforation. The panel is assembled by laying out pages in a square of four."

McCaffery expanded his creative method in CARNIVAL's "second panel" beyond the typewriter to include various other forms of "scription" and published that work in 1977.

Clay & Phillips, p. 269.