Today I wrote nothing.

Today I wrote nothing. By Natalie Czech. Editions Gwinzegal, 2010. 44pp., illustrated throughout, 13x20cm. Limited and numbered edition of 500.

Book description:

"The photographic series 'Today I wrote nothing' by Natalie Czech is based on a diary entry by the Russian avant-garde author and poet Daniil Kharms (1905-1942).

Founder of the OBERIU or 'Union of Real Art' movement, Kharms was a well-known poet and performer of the early Soviet literary scene. He was denounced as an 'anti-Soviet' writer in 1931, and arrested and imprisoned in a psychiatric ward in 1941.

Kharms died in his cell, most likely of starvation, in 1942. In 1937, Kharms wrote the following entry in his diary: Today I wrote nothing. Doesn't matter. January 9th.


'Today I wrote nothing' is a series of 22 photographic tableaux. Each tableau consists of a printed book page, inscribed with the text of Kharms' diary-entry. On each page some of the words of the entry are missing, so that the written statement changes."