Between text and image, east and west: Henri Michaux's signs and Christian Dotremont's 'Logogrammes'

From their material manifestation on the page or canvas, it can be observed that Henri Michaux’s signs and Christian Dotremont’s 'logogrammes' are influenced by ideographic forms and calligraphy. Like many artists and writers, both Michaux and Dotremont were interested in this signifying system, which functions in a radically different manner to the Western alphabetic system. Many practitioners, although mesmerised by the formal aesthetic qualities of the ideogram, had little or no knowledge of how this signifying system actually worked. In this article, the reasons behind Michaux’s and Dotremont’s attraction to the creative possibilities offered by the ideogram and their respective appropriations of it will be analysed.