nico

The part about Nico Vassilakis' visual poetry that I found most interesting was its ability to transcend language. In Geof Huth's foreword, he points out how some of Vassilakis' visual poems are in English but some are also in Greek. He ephasizes, however, the unimportance of the actual language the visual poem is set in. Since Nico's aim is to tear down the barrier of coherent semiotic understanding of the language, the meaning of what the letters spell out is irrelevant. It could be in German, Spanish, or Italian but it would all work to produce the same effect.
Keeping in mind the irrelevance of the specific language, the reader can better concentrate on the letters as they stand alone in the piece. We become familiarized with a new language that we have never seen before, but somehow are able to understand.