Grögerová, Bohumila (1921–2014).

[CONCRETE POETRY IN SOCIALIST CZECHOSLOVAKIA] Čtyří básně [Four poems].

[Prague]: UB [Alois Chvála], 1965. Small octavo (15.3 × 10.9 cm). Tan paper folder with author's monogram in black and blue letterpress design; three loosely inserted folding leaves of thick wove paper (one blank, one containing title and colophon, the others with four poems printed using letterpress to rectos and versos). Wrapper edges discolored; else about fine. Item #P003668

Self-published samizdat edition of four visual and concrete poems by an early pioneer of the genre in Socialist Czechoslovakia. The work was hand-printed by Alois Chvála (1885–1973), a Czech graphic artist, printer, and typographer who would go on to issue at least three similar portfolios of concrete and visual poetry by authors including Jiří Kolář and Josef Hiršal. All were likely produced in small runs, using the imprint "UB" and in a curious fusion of bibliophile publication and unofficial samizdat.

From the 1960s on, Bohumila Grögerová (1921–2014), along with her partner Josef Hiršal (1920–2003), was a leading figure of concrete and experimental poetry in Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring of 1968, the pair was unable to publish original work, though numerous texts appeared in samizdat form and both also became prolific translators. The poems selected for this publication, such as “The tossed sash” or “Morgenstern’s Crossword”, are based on recognizable visual structures that deform or de-limit the text, deleting or adding letters along the edges that make the poems partly sensible, partly randomized. Although many of her texts are accessible even to non-Czech readers, Grögerová remains largely unknown in the English-speaking world; both her and Hiršal’s work await further research and publications.

As of March 2026, KVK, OCLC show four copies in North America.

Price: €800.00

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