Hélène Bessette, an Artist without Limits ?

Abstract

The work of Hélène Bessette (1918 -2000) is a permanent experimentation that does away with all limits. She transgresses all the rules of decorum and never censures an opinion. She ignores all the rules established by centuries of literary and editorial practice. Dramatic effects, nursery rhymes, political and advertising slogans, characterisation are all, as it were, joyfully high jacked. She writes a type of poetic prose that makes one think of a vocal or a musical score. The associations and shifts of sounds, the breaks and silences construct a breathing text, peaceful at times, at other times almost out of breath. The variations in script and typographical layout, also idiosyncratic, play their part, through their visual impact, in the total work of art Bessette is aiming at.