The Book of a Hundred HandsThe hand is second only to language in defining the human being, and its constant presence makes it a ready reminder of our humanity, with all its privileges and obligations. In this dazzling collection, Cole Swensen explores the hand from any angle approachable by language and art. Her hope: to exhaust the hand as subject matter; her joy: the fact that she couldn’t. These short poems reveal the hand from a hundred different perspectives. Incorporating sign language, drawing manuals, paintings from the 14th to the 20th century, shadow puppets, imagined histories, positions (the “hand as a boatless sail”), and professions (“the hand as window in which the panes infinitesimal”), Cole Swensen’s fine hand is “that which augments” our understanding and appreciation of “this freak wing,” this “wheel that comforts none” yet remains “a fruit the size and shape of the heart.” |
Contents
Positions of the Hand | 15 |
Professions of the Hand | 27 |
Representations of the Hand | 47 |
The Anatomy of the Hand | 57 |
American Sign Language | 81 |
Shadow Puppets | 99 |
A Manual of Gesture Public Speaking for the Gentleman 1879 | 107 |
Paintings of Possible Hands | 115 |
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Common terms and phrases
19th-Century Harbor Alignment alphabet American Sign Language Auguste Rodin bends Bevel Bin Ramke birds Bluhm and Frank body bone carved Cole Swensen dark Descending Lateral Prone door Etched in Glass eyes face feather fingertips fold FRA ANGELICO Frank O'Hara glove glows Hand as Ideogram Hand as Mango Hand as Mansion Hand as Window hAND DEFINED Hand Descending Oblique Hand Etched Hand in Fresco Hand Painted Hand Sculpted Hand Sketched Hand That Caresses Hand THE HANDS Hands Descending Lateral Hands Testify hold huge Hundred Hands Jena Osman knuckles left hand light live look Manual Alphabet Manual of Gesture Marc Chagall Marcel Duchamp move muscles Norman Bluhm palm Palmar View pane Rembrandt van Rijn ridge Right Hand Ascending Sean Scully Self-Portrait with Seven sEvEN Shadow Puppets shoulder Sign Language simple past skin spine splay sweep tendons There’s things thumb touch turned walk Watch wave Wilton Diptych wrist