For the record, whatever record, here's what we had to say about this journal:
Edited by spouses Chelsea and Seth McKelvey, S/WORD
(variably
pronounced “sword,” “s word,” “sslashword,” etc.) arises from the
belief of a singular truth in Word: that it is living and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul
and spirit.
Crossing out (or, more accurately, crossing over) is not an erasure or elimination; it does not render the word illegible. Rather, it invites you to read, and subsequently asks you to consider what you have read as flawed. It indicates a change in one’s mind, showing not just the before and after, but the change itself, the space in between. It shows process and progress, insofar as regress is necessary to progress.
S/WORD seeks impossible expressions of beauty and power in language. Only in light of such failed attempts is it a worthwhile endeavour to cut and pierce, to show the malleable frailty of words. It is the firm belief in seeing the unseen, the contradictory capabilities and limitations of language.
S/WORD is concerned with the dissolution of language, its breaking point, so that we may know the Word through apophasis.
S/WORD exists as a record of these fragments, these shards, these partial reflections. It is a work in progress, a training ground for a community of artists.
Crossing out (or, more accurately, crossing over) is not an erasure or elimination; it does not render the word illegible. Rather, it invites you to read, and subsequently asks you to consider what you have read as flawed. It indicates a change in one’s mind, showing not just the before and after, but the change itself, the space in between. It shows process and progress, insofar as regress is necessary to progress.
S/WORD seeks impossible expressions of beauty and power in language. Only in light of such failed attempts is it a worthwhile endeavour to cut and pierce, to show the malleable frailty of words. It is the firm belief in seeing the unseen, the contradictory capabilities and limitations of language.
S/WORD is concerned with the dissolution of language, its breaking point, so that we may know the Word through apophasis.
S/WORD exists as a record of these fragments, these shards, these partial reflections. It is a work in progress, a training ground for a community of artists.
We remain conscious of our ephemerality, and we'll endeavor to keep S/WORD and its archives online for as long as we are physically and financially able. That, too, will expire, so we have also reconstructed our archives with PDF versions of every issue, so that anyone may create local copies to read and share independent of an immortal online presence.