Two Unusual Examples of vispro Objects – finding Vispro in antiquity Before beginning the task of manufacturing vispro ‘pegs’, in order to create the context around which I wish to frame the discussion, the term deserves a few substantiated examples of works which I would term visual prose, that is, vispro. Liber Lineteus Zagrebiensis Firstly, the Liber Linteus (a linen book) otherwise known as the linen book of Zagreb* was wrapped around an Egyptian mummy dating approximately 150BC. Consisting of Etruscan text – in fact the longest Etruscan text known today - approximately 1300 words - this fascinating artefact, would typify a physical manifestation of vispro. It is no longer intact as Mihajlo Barić unwrapped the relic, but the photograph below (date unknown) would exemplify the embodiment of vispro.
The mummy of Zagreb with fragments of the Liber Linteus (http://www.geocities.ws/jackiesixx/caere/linteus.htm) date of photograph unknown. Through its enigmatic nature, evocative juxtaposition of text (prose, not poetry), integration of text and object, and inscrutable visual elements I state this claim for the following reason: as the mummy was wrapped in linen cloth imprinted with text, the object – (the textually wrapped mummy) is in itself the vispro object. Although the wrappings are of meticulously written, decipherable Etruscan text, inscribed onto specially woven linen and executed in expensive ink made of burnt ivory, as a stand-alone linen book it cannot be described as vispro, (although absolutely visually appealing), except perhaps for its’ inherent antiquity. Together however, the mummy and the cloth create an authentic vispro object. Text and object have met in strange circumstances, not yet understood, in a mummy and its bandages. *In 1848 a Croatian official named Mihajlo Barić resigned from the Hungarian Royal Chancellery preferring to embark on a tour of several countries including Egypt. On reaching Alexandria he purchased (details unknown) a sarcophagus containing a female mummy wrapped in linen bandages. At some point he removed the linen bandages displaying them separately. On his death in 1859 his brother donated the find to the State Institute of Zagreb.
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