JEAN-FRANCOIS BORY OPERATES

Jean François Bory is a French artist and one of the leading figures of French visual poetry. He was born in Paris in 1938, a city where he still lives and works today.
Starting in 1965, he dedicated himself to sound poetry, participating in various music festivals, such as Aktion und Saben at the Kunsthalle in Bern in 1967.
Starting from the mid-1960s, Jean François Bory became interested in visual poetry and began working on his first Artist's Books. In the following years, he started collaborating with various publishing houses based in the United States, France, and even in Italy, publishing artist's books meticulously crafted in every detail, both in terms of layout and graphics, as it was not only the content of the artwork that was important, but also its style.
To lend elegance to each of his compositions, the artist repeatedly decides to resort to white and black, as he found these shades much more intense and endowed with personality compared to colors which, according to him, managed to distract the reader, causing them to lose the very essence of the final meaning.
In the following years, Jean François Bory continues to work on the representation of the book, also approaching sculpture, as his aim was to create complete compositions that could simultaneously exploit visual, sound, and three-dimensional art, elements that would characterize the poetry and publishing activity of the artist in every phase of his life and production.
Since 1966, the artist has founded numerous magazines, some in collaboration with Julien Blaine, among which the most important is called Approches. In 1968, he also collaborated with Jochen Gerz, with whom he published several anthology magazines included in the series Agentzia. Another magazine, titled Once Again, published in New York, has achieved the same success.
However, successes are not slow to appear even in Italy where, in 1970, a French-language magazine titled Humiditè is born, which often sees collaboration between the artist and other exponents of visual poetry, who could enjoy a common space to exchange their opinions and find points of agreement on this fascinating but little-known subject to the public.
In 1974, Jean François Bory joined the International Group of Visual Poetry, better known as the Group of Nine, which also included Eugenio Micini, Michele Perfetti, Sarenco, Lucia Marcucci, and many others.
Among the artist's most famous works, we certainly find The End III from 1971, where a simple stylized book is reproduced on the sand, and also All over, where the same book is depicted on an emulsified canvas using three dimensions.
Some sculptures are also very famous, such as Eternitè, created in 1980 and born from the assembly of multiple volumes, which testify to the importance the artist places on culture.
In the 2000s, the works of Jean François Bory took on particular connotations, such as Autodafé, which features the printing of some letters replicated in different styles that give a sense of harmonious movement on a plexiglass plate.
In 2006, the artist also devoted himself to creating some sculptures depicting various models of typewriters and truly unique three-dimensional books.
Since 2008, the works have returned to being quite linear and rather simple, suggesting that the poet's vision of art refers to a single cycle destined to repeat over time.