Edition Splitter
Edition Splitter, a small but refined publishing house situated in the centre of Vienna, was founded in 1991. Its publications number approximately 55 titles at present, with an average of five new publications being added to this total each year.
The working philosophy of Publisher Batya Horn does not freely lend itself to conventional public taste. Edition Splitter’s publications nevertheless maintain their place on the fringes of international mainstream literature.
Central to the Splitter agenda is to further the cause of experimental literature.
Edition Splitter does not shy away from associating itself with the most radical and experimental contemporary literary forms; poetry in its broadest sense.
Thus, the first volume of a planned edition of the complete works of Eugen Gomringer appeared in October 1995. Volume two was published in 1997 [theorie der konkreten poesie] and volume three [zur sache der konkreten] followed in June 2000.
In this way, Gomringer’s endeavours towards a new understanding of words and text and his work on literary theory were made available in their entirety for the first time.
The planned publication of the fourth volume in 2004 will show, once and for all, that ‘the father of concrete poetry’ is much more than an ambitious storyteller.
Edition Splitter sees itself primarily as a forum for contemporary Austrian literature, happy to publish the work of both established authors and of those who until now have been known only to a very select readership:
Elfriede Gerstl, Elisabeth Wäger, Angelika Kaufmann, Paul Blaha, anselm glück, Stephan Eibel-Erzberg, Bodo Hell, Gerhard Jaschke, Heinz Markstein, Kurt Neumann, Alberto Pimenta, Karl Riha and others.
Another of Edition Splitter’s main concerns is to raise critical interest in cultural-philosophical issues, an aim that has been furthered by the work of authors such as Burghart Schmidt, Peter Daniel and Ingo Nussbaumer.
The very name ‘Edition Splitter’ outlines our working philosophy very precisely; the attempt to abandon that which is unchallenging and apparently obvious truths and, moreover, to allow old and familiar things to be ‘split apart’, while at the same time seeking to reunite that which has been fragmented and ‘split’. What appears to be unwieldy and not readily accessible always seeks to distance itself from the world of purely consumer-based reading habits.
Reacting against the modern culture of quick turnovers and mass production, Batya Horn insists upon high aesthetic principles in the production of her books and T-shirts as well as the wines bearing literary fragments and sequences on their labels.
The publications of Edition Splitter therefore, show the way back to a critical approach to reading. In the words of Burghart Schmidt, ‘lesen heisst jetzt splittern’
[From now on reading will be known as splittern]
Galerie Splitter Art
In the age of information technology and the internet, it seems to be more necessary than ever [even in the world of Art] to operate in overlapping lines of business.
Edition Splitter, having already established its thematic concerns to be right on the margins of literature sets itself this further challenge. In order to achieve its aim, a further property bordering the office of Edition Splitter Wien was rented in 1997.
This new Art ShowRoom afforded Splitter authors and artists the possibility of exhibiting their work to the public. New media such as the realm of concrete/visual poetry - which inhabits that margin between plastic Art and literature - have become the main thrust of the Splitter agenda since the ShowRoom was opened.
Apart from anything else, the ShowRoom is open to everybody and equally open to anything new - just like Edition Splitter itself.
The Publishing House & the Art ShowRoom have since fused together to form that ‘unity in variety’, which is the prerequisite for any genuinely open ShowRoom.
Batya Horn wants to place special emphasis on the international nature of this Viennese Publishing House & ShowRoom: small yet exclusive, throwing its doors wide open to the world of Art.
In the last five years we have already been able to welcome several well-known artists to the Art ShowRoom, including Helga Philipp, Angelika Kaufmann, Roland Goeschl, Stefan Emmelmann, Konrad Balder Schäuffelen, Peter Wechsler, Heinz Grosskopf, Peter Daniel, Jerczy Kalucki, Ingo Nussbaumer, Cornelia Kaufmann, July Rabinowich and others.
In order to see for yourself some of the exhibitions taking place in the Art ShowRoom, please feel free to visit the archive in the menu.
