Aphorisms and artworks
Excess of Being
English aphorisms
A collection of aphorisms and artworks, bringing together Lera Auerbach’s literary, philosophical, and visual imagination. The book explores the compressed, volatile form of the aphorism alongside Auerbach’s original visual work.
The Book
Aphorism as pressure point: brief forms, dark humor, philosophical compression, and images made from weathered surfaces.
Visual Art
The print edition is interspersed with 117 color plates of Auerbach’s original artwork on antique metal roof tiles.
Book Information
Contents and Form
Excess of Being is Lera Auerbach’s first book published in English. It revitalizes the aphorism as a literary form: condensed, volatile, humorous, and philosophical.
The book joins language and visual art, placing its aphorisms in dialogue with Auerbach’s original artwork. Its subject is not one theme, but the excess of existence itself: art, fear, mortality, imagination, creation, contradiction, and what it means to remain human.
- FormAphorisms.
- Image117 color plates.
- ContextFirst English-language book.
About the Book
Excess of Being brings together Auerbach’s literary and visual worlds. The book’s aphorisms are brief but not miniature: they use compression to create pressure, turning humor, paradox, and philosophical perception into a form of poetic architecture.
The visual dimension is integral to the book. Auerbach’s artwork, reproduced in color throughout the volume, extends the aphoristic principle into image: marks, surfaces, and damaged materials become another form of thought.
Praise
Praise for Excess of Being
Readers, poets, editors, artists, translators, and critics have responded to the book’s fusion of aphoristic compression, philosophical wit, visual imagination, and inner weather.
“A terrific read and a great companion, the kind of book that lovers of music and poetry will want to keep by their bedsides.”Thomas McCarthyPoet, novelist and critic; author of The Sorrow Garden and The Last Geraldine Officer.
“The real subject is your mind in motion — and your ear — and your nervous system… an inspiring experience.”David LehmanPoet; editor of The Best American Poetry series, The Oxford Book of American Poetry, and Great American Prose Poems; author of A Fine Romance, Yeshiva Boys, and The Evening Sun.
“Lera Auerbach’s aphorisms are an open window on her mind, one of the best and busiest minds around just now.”John MatthiasPoet; editor of Notre Dame Review; author of Different Kinds of Music and Collected Shorter Poems.
“Amusing and insightful, both fun and serious.”Irene DischeNovelist; author of Pious Secrets and The Empress of Weehawken.
“A great deal of wisdom and playfulness, and also a dark side that intimately reveals an inner world and beliefs.”Josh BarkanNovelist; author of Blind Speed and Before Hiroshima.
“Truly profound; made me think, wince and chuckle. Delicious reading.”Antonina W. BouisAward-winning translator of Mikhail Bulgakov, Evgeny Evtushenko, and Solomon Volkov.
“Brilliant evidence of wisdom, life experience, humor and, above all, enjoyable reading.”Hans-Ulrich DuffekDirector and editor of Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski, Hamburg.
“Brilliant aphorisms. Gorgeous graphic art.”Dmitry GutovVisual artist.
“A global talent to the anglophone stage.”Taylor Davis-Van AttaEditor-in-chief of Music & Literature.
“One might think it enough for Lera Auerbach to be one of our best living composers and a virtuoso pianist. But she is also a poet and visual artist.”John MatthiasOn the book’s rare form and Auerbach’s artistic breadth.
Online Materials
-
PublisherArch Street Press Arch Street Press
-
Retail / OrderAmazon · AbeBooks · BookScouter · eBay · Apple Books
-
DigitalApple Books Apple Books
-
ReferenceLera Auerbach Books Catalogue LeraAuerbach.com
Press
Publisher and Materials
Published by Arch Street Press. The publisher listing, print marketplace links, used and rare book links, and digital edition links are gathered below.
