Adib Fricke
«The Word Company»

Adib Fricke‘s deconstruction of signs and semantics using computer-generated textual building blocks is formulated in its most consistent and diverse way so far in the digital catalogue for the 'Word Company'. The artist sells his 'Protonyms', products of creative word design, as a service provider, using the Net, or as a CD-ROM. The fact that he simulates the 'Corporate Identity' of a company – The Word Company also has a logo – or of a dictionary evokes many possibilities for contextualization and implicit sub-texts for handling word coinages like the mysterious 'Yemmels' or the familiar-sounding 'Methos'. Fricke does not just place these 'autonomous' words on the Net, but also in museums, as traditional panel pictures. His heading 'Words for the Day' is ultimately not just edifying, but strengthens us physically as well. Fricke's dry humour releases his readers from the world of pure text so that we can stand up to the everyday semantic background noise we are exposed to with renewed strength.

Rudolf Frieling