This artist's book by Simon Cutts is an exploration of the nature of reading and its relationship with the spoken word. The quotations at the beginning and the end of this pamphlet-style work are taken from Stéphane Mallarmé's 'Crise de vers'(1886-96) and concern his theory of the 'pure work' and the power of words. Mallarmé's literary observations serve as a point of departure for Cutt's own text, originally assembled in 1967. The text, printed in magenta ink on cream-coloured paper, is made up of a sequence of elegant sentences, phrases, words and blank pages. The pared down aesthetic of the page layout is evidently an essential element of the work. The 'notes' at the end of the work elaborate further: For Cutts the work can be 'read' sequentially but equally 'a haphazard eyeful will reveal some meaning or other'. The printed words that make up the text are celebrated as much for their visual resonance as for their notation of a particular sound.