No Through Road

is the second poetry chapbook in Art Bureau’s Highball Reading Series. ISBN13: 9781161046298. ISBN10: 1161046291

Martin Reiner is the author of five books of poems and a novel. Born in Brno, Czech Republic, he attended several military academies and was imprisoned for eight months before re-entering civilian life. He has worked primarily in the arts since 1989. No Through Road is his first chapbook to be published in English.

“Yesterday you cried in your sleep. But I was too scared to wake you.”

The primary focus of Art Bureau is to give a home to artists looking to display and sell their work. When you visit their site you will find prints, originals, toys, screenprints, sticker, and more from many quality young artists. So how does the first english chapbook from Czech Republic poet Martin Reiner fit into the Art Bureau catalog? Well if you take a look at the original limited edition screen prints the Bureau is producing it may give you an idea of where this chap is coming from production wise. It is printed beautifully, with rounded corners, collages by Ivan Wernisch, perfect font and coloring, it is truly and artistic chap in every sense of the word.

The work of Martin Reiner (as translated by Andrew Oakland) is compact and powerful touching on nature, man, and machine. “Es wird mehr Maschinen gerbraucht!” He makes micro commentaries on life through his perceived reality in the Czech Republic. Reading through this collection you begin realize that life, no matter the physical location, is a universal phenomenon.

“absorbing the world like a wave”

Also included in the package from the books designer and founder of Art Bureau Bert Benson was Poems-for-All Series #775 “Wonder/Divas” which is taken from this chap. Poems-for-all is a wonderful project similar to the GPP, but smaller is size and approaching 1000 in editions. A great way to scatter the written word around the world. —  Nick Volkert

Book version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)