Rob’s Word Shop

Poetry. Art. Performance Studies. This special edition artist’s book contains ledgers and transcriptions documenting the exchanges that occurred at Rob’s Word Shop, followed by an essay by the store’s Records Manager, Lawrence Giffin, and a sampling of materials collected for the store’s archives. On Wednesday, May 5th, 2010, I opened Rob’s Word Shop, a storefront shop where individual letters and words were sold. My shop location was 308 Bowery (the south window at the Bowery Poetry Club), and my hours of operation were Tuesday through Thursday 11:00AM–2:00PM, from May 5 through May 27. The words and letters were either chosen by the individual customers or arrived at with my assistance. I would then hand-write or print the letter, word, or phrase. Single letters were sold for 50 cents and single words for one dollar. As the sole proprietor of the store, I invited people to stop by for a chat and shop for words. All of these chats were recorded as videos and can be viewed on YouTube. –Robert Fitterman