Contradicta: Aphorisms

Inspired by the notion of the dialectic in the work of philosophers such as Hegel and Bachelard, Nick Piombino created his idea of paired aphorisms he calls contradicta, recasting the classic form of the great aphorists such as François de La Rochefoucauld, William Blake, and Ralph Waldo Emerson in a contemporary context.

Instead of presenting a single point of view, the pairs reflect on and resonate with each other, and sometimes even contradict one another. Piombino has said that the contradicta replicate some aspects of psychoanalysis in which two individual viewpoints are juxtaposed, working together to achieve understanding and insight. Piombino’s poetic, wise, and witty aphorisms are well complemented by the humor, warmth, and lyricism of Toni Simon’s collages, which offer a telling slant on the contradicta, as well their own vivid visual dimension.

Author of several books, including Poems, Theoretical Objects (also published by Green Integer) and The Boundary of Blur, Nick Piombino lives, with artist Toni Simon, in Brooklyn, New York.