Three Alphabets - and one in use

Poul Pedersen, Anders Bonnesen, Lise Terdjman - and Lita Rosing-Schow
Curated by Poul Pedersen

November 5 - December 4, 2021

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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10 AT 5 PM: PERFORMANCE BY LISE TERDJMAN.

Poul Pedersen has invited Anders Bonnesen, Lise Terdjman and Lita Rosing-Schow to take part in the exhibition Three alphabets - and one in use, opening in SPECTA on November 5, and they all - as the title of the exhibition says - present works relating specifically to the alphabet.

The alphabet has always been a central part of Poul Pedersen's artistic practice, and he describes the letters as his tools. For this exhibition, he has invited the artists to contribute with their alphabets. These are new works that are made with the particular system which the alphabet is, but at the same time they are very different in form, medium and expression.

Anders Bonnesen has created The Placeable / The Unplaceable Alphabet, which points to the function of the letters (or lack of function) as signs, and also points to Poul Pedersen.

Lise Terdjman's alphabet is almost like movements on paper in drawings which collectively bear the title Body Letters, and Terdjman will also make a performance in the gallery on Wednesday 10 November at 5 pm.

The Alphabet in Use is a memoir by Poul Pedersen's longtime friend Lita Rosing-Schow, in which Poul Pedersen's Stolen Alphabet appears.

 Poul Pedersen has always worked with words and letters as his starting point, and he bears the nickname "Bogstav-Poul" (“Letter-Poul”).

Poul Pedersen’s probably most known project "The Stolen Alphabet" was created over 25 years, where he stole letters from other artists' works - e.g. a P from Piet Mondrian, an A from Picasso, an I from Jasper Johns, an M from Sven Dalsgaard, an F from Axel Salto. Poul sat down in front of the different artworks, copying the letter in the color in which it appeared, thus creating a style or a font of stolen letters. Today, The Stolen Alphabet belongs to the State Library in Aarhus.

For this exhibition Poul Pedersen has also made a new alphabet, The Yellow Minus-Plus Alphabet (a Mutation).