HER | HIM by Sára Iványi
First edition
20 x 28.7 cm / 8 x 11.5 inch
Dark Editions # 02, 2022

‘HER’ (198 pages) / ‘HIM’ (56 pages) 254 pages
Laser prints on 90 grams Biotop paper and 160 grams drawing paper.
Double cover back-to-back stack bound with metal pins.

An antilipo and visual poem in two parts, HER | HIM consist of two growing lists of every
English word Sára Iványi knows containing each letter of the word ‘her’ and ‘him’.

Based on the idea that language is a parasitic or alien life form that uses us to
propagate itself, as well as on the feedback loop between language and the self as
territories of belonging and exile, the lists are an example of the curious (im)possibility
of translation and the fragmented self that arises from it. The more languages one
understands, the more elusive the reflection of the self in them becomes.

Iványi grew up speaking Hungarian, the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘he’ do not exist in Hungarian,
only a gender neutral third-person singular pronoun. These lists are a way to reflect
on the self through words that belong to her, as well as questioning the dynamic and limits
of belonging to words. While ‘her’ and ‘him’ hide in these words in English, they would be
lost in the translation into any other language.

The full set of pages can be read as poems, diptychs or images.
Pages can be removed from the books and individually framed, hang, used.

Sára Iványi is a poet, artist and member of the Interactions Group.
Rooted in early experiences of displacement, she is fascinated by boundaries
and phenomenology, especially the idea of language as a parasitic or alien life form.
Her poetry has been published on Hotel.

She currently lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

www.saraivanyi.com
theinteractions.cargo.site