Sylvester Houédard

Dom Pierre-Sylvester Houédard (16 February 1924 – 15 January 1992), also known by the initials "dsh", was a British Benedictine priest, theologian and noted concrete poet.

Life Born on Guernsey, as Pierre (Peter) Thomas Paul Jean Houédard, he was educated at Jesus College, Oxford.

Concrete poet Houédard was a leading exponent of concrete poetry, with regular contributions to magazines and exhibitions from the early 1960s onward. He published several works of literary criticism, often with eccentric typography, and corresponded widely with leading poets, artists, theologians and philosophers of his day, including Robert Graves, Edwin Morgan, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Lionel Kearns, Mark Boyle, John Blofeld, Michael Horovitz and Ian Hamilton Finlay. Houédard collaborated next with Filipino poet and artist David Medalla in a modern ballet entitled The Yellow Wrinkled Pea, inspired by the life and scientific discoveries of the monk Gregor Mendel; the modern ballet, choreographed by Medalla, was performed in 1967 by members of the Exploding Galaxy at Middle Earth in Covent Garden, London, in 1967. Houédard contributed a poem to Signals, the avant-garde news bulletin by Medalla in the 1960s. Houédard, Medalla and Antonio Sena exhibited together at the Lisson Gallery in London in 1967. Medalla curated the first solo exhibition by Houédard in 1976 at Artists for Democracy's Fitzrovia Cultural Centre, 143 Whitfield Street, London.

Publications In 2012, Occasional Papers published Notes from the Cosmic Typewriter, a book devoted to Houédard, edited by Nicola Simpson, with essays by Gustavo Grandal Montero, Rick Poynor, David Toop and Charles Verey.