Bio

---

L’art selon Mike Schertzer

Les paysages qu’il traverse, il les porte sur la peau. Sa géographie intime est une rencontre entre l’art contemporain, la poésie et l’écriture expérimentale. Il créée depuis toujours dans la chair des mots, dans l’ardeur des choses.
.
Son art est une écriture. Une écriture de tous les instants, par tous les moyens. Il invite, il invente, il vit son art comme une longue et lente respiration qui prend sa source dans les rêves inavoués et inavouables.

L’empreinte de son corps se déploie sur les surfaces, les lignes, les formes. Il ne saisit que ce qui le traverse et le bouleverse. On ne sort pas indemne de ce mouvement incessant. On ne sort pas indemne de le voir, de le lire et de le vivre un moment parmi ses carnets, collages et sublimages. Il sait comment renverser son monde et le monde s’y abandonne.

- M.White

---

Notables

– performed the longest reading of original work in Canadian history (Purge : 10 hours, April 3, 1999)
– composed the longest acronym in the English language (224 words, Acronymic in Cipher and Poverty: The Book of Nothing)

2025	first chapter of ongoing personal expositions at Poetry is disaster, Morlaix, France.
	Sedimentalities (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2024	La Venelle de la Roche : texts by Philippe Jaccottet, Morlaix, France.
	Opening of studio/gallery Poetry is disaster in Morlaix, France.
	Murmurations: Collected Poems 1989-2024. Tonguenail Books; ISBN 978-0-9698008-1-1.
	Squanderings (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2023	Metaclysms (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2022	Méandres proustiens : texts by Marcel Proust; Beg-Meil, France.
	exposition Du côté de Beg-Meil, Marcel Proust à Fouesnant , l’Archipel (Fouesnant, France).
	A Personal Dictionary (9th edition) self-published, Tonguenail Books; ISBN 0-9698008-1-9
	Le bruit du temps perdu vol. 1 & 2. Tonguenail Books; ISBN 979-10-415-0118-2
	Peurifications (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
	catalogue of interventions and performances, Mike Schertzer (1994-2021) self-published , Tongenail Books.
2021	Desarticulations (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2020	Glumenations: Penfoulic (Fouesnant), France.
	Sur l’expérience (Les Essais by Montaigne): Ile d’Ouessant et Beg-Meil, France.
	L’eau et les rêves: texts by Gaston Bachelard; Beg-Meil, France.
	Here, and no further: chalk intervention (in collaboration with M.White); Beg-Meil, France.
	Refinements (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2019	Le temps retrouvé: texts by Marcel Proust (in collaboration with M. White); rue des Francs Bourgeois, Paris.
	Devant la loi; Les marches: two texts by Franz Kafka : rue de Citeaux et quai d’Anjou, Paris.
	Confluence: imaginary conversation between Pablo Neruda and Mike Schertzer, in white chalk. Epitopou19, Livadia (Andros), Greece.
	Syllogasms (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2018	L’inexprimable: texts de Franz Kafka (Festival d’art de l’Estran); Trébeurden, France.
2017	Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir (Les Essais by Montaigne), In Situ 1.2; Arles, France.
	Retrenchments (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2016	Sur les Exercices (Les Essais by Montaigne); Saint-Cast-Le-Guildo, France.
	Intercessions, Galerie Caroline Tresca, Paris, France.
	Compensations (reflections on art, poetry, and the creative life from A Personal Dictionary).
2015	Les Villes Invisibles: texts by Italo Calvino, Nuit Blanche 2015, Bruxelles; Brussels, Belgium
	Sur la Gloire (Les Essais by Montaigne); Biarritz, France.
	Egressions (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2014	De la Solitude (Les Essais by Montaigne), Nuit Blanche 2014 Paris; Paris, France.
	Involutions (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2013	A l’usage de ceux qui voient (2 installations during Langres Diderot 2013). Langres, France.
	Assignations (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
	Euthanasiasms (additions to A Personal Dictionary 2004- 2013) self-published.
2012	Une Déclaration (installation during Rencontres Philosophiques 2012). Langres, France.
2011	Mortivations (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2009	Uncommon Hours (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2008	Invigorations (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
	Words Learned at the Bottom of a Well, exhibition of recent sublimage. A440Hz, Vancouver, Canada.
2007	Instrangements (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
	excerpts from Peindicy published in Exile vol.31 (1).
	Peindicy published (Exile Editions) ISBN 978-1-55096-103-4.
2006	Hope is an Illegitimate Heir exhibition of sublimage and negatexts. Jarvis Hall Fine Frames, Calgary, Canada.
	I am not the end: chalk performance of texts by Joseph Joubert; Vancouver, Canada.
2005	Consequence (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
	The Prince: chalk performance of texts by Thomas Bernhard; Vancouver, Canada.
	7 (new poems) self-published.
	The Endroom (recent additions to A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2004	excerpts from A Personal Dictionary published in Exile vol.27 (4).
	Daybreak: chalk performance of texts by Friedrich Nietzsche; Vancouver, Canada.
	A Personal Dictionary (4th edition) published online in its entirety.
2003	Thresheld self-published.
	Utopia: chalk performance of texts by E.M. Cioran; Vancouver, Canada.
	Negatextual Resource Centre: exhibition of negatexts, Studio Blue; Vancouver, Canada.
	excerpts from Evidence published in Exile vol.27 (3).
	Devil’s Wine (poem, poet, and poetry from A Personal Dictionary) self-published.
2002	exhibition of Sublimages, Active Pass Pharmaceuticals; Vancouver Canada,
	Total Domination: chalk performance of texts by Hannah Arendt; Vancouver, Canada.
	A Congregation of Last Moments: exhibition of Sublimages. Studio Blue; Vancouver, Canada .
2001	The Grand Inquisitor: chalk performance of a text by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Vancouver, Canada.
	Contradiction, chalk performance, Pointless Hysteria; Vancouver, Canada.
	Dissociative Fugue, exhibition of sublimage and performance at Pointless Hysteria; Vancouver, Canada.
	selections from Short Films from the Fourteenth Century in Young Bloods (stories from Exile, 1972-2001) ISBN 1-55096-636-7.
2000	Evidence, a performance at the Blinding Light; Vancouver, Canada.
	debut of the Opacity Project, public interventions and performances throughout Vancouver, Canada.
	Low Tide: shoreline chalk performance of texts by Michel de Montaigne; Vancouver, Canada.
	Dissociative Fugue (limited edition of 50) self-published.
1999	Purge, a 10 hour marathon reading encompassing the last 10 years of work, pseudo-work, and literate futilities; Vancouver, Canada.
	Marginotomy, exhibition of Sublimages at Pointless Hysteria; Vancouver, Canada.
	Discurse, a marathon reading series in unlikely public locations (including The Loser by Tomas Bernhard, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino); Vancouver, Canada.
1998	Cipher and Poverty (The Book of Nothing) published (Ekstasis Editions) ISBN 1-896860-31-1.
	The Broken Word Canadian reading tour.
	exhibition Sublimage: collage and negatexts with a performance of Umbilicatorium, Din Studios, Toronto, Canada.
	Absulation (limited edition of 50) self-published.
1997	A Personal Dictionary (limited edition of 50 copies) published (Tonguenail Books) ISBN 0-9698008-1-9.
1994	The House of Misfortune published (Tonguenail Books) ISBN 0-9698008-0-0.
	Short Films from the Fourteenth Century published (Exile Editions) ISBN 1-55096-0490.
	a hand for the drowned published (Ekstasis Editions) ISBN 0-921215-85-1.
1989-1984	stories and poems appeared in: Dandelion, Exile, paragraph, Canadian Fiction Magazine, Prism, NeWest Review, Grain, The New Quartelry, Poetry Canada Review, Sub-Terrain