Dickinson/Walser, “Pencil Sketches”

Two writers known for creating eccentric manuscripts—the great American poet Emily Dickinson and the Swiss writer Robert Walser—come together in this fascinating exhibition, which explores the boundary where words become more than just conveyors of meaning, attaining a visual presence all their own. Dickinson often wrote out her poems on whatever bits of paper were handy, including envelopes, taking care to arrange the words to follow the shape of the scrap she was scribbling on. Walser, meanwhile, created "microscripts," using a supposedly archaic form of German, done in a tiny hand; the combination made the result illegible, and yet undeniably compelling.