The latest issue of the James Joyce Quarterly (Volume 52, Number 1) includes a review of Waywords and Meansigns, by Aodhán Kelly and Tom De Keyser from the University of Antwerp. Focusing on the first edition of Waywords and Meansigns, Kelly and De Keyser wrote: “Each track is… a unique and completely personal interpretation of an artist’s reading of the text”.
Kelly and De Keyser also credited Waywords and Meansigns with “gather[ing] considerable interest among both the artistic community and Joyce enthusiasts and reading groups” and “add[ing] another layer of richness to the life of the book with its own musical interpretation as a new form of cultural production”. You can check out the full review wherever there’s a nearby copy of the James Joyce Quarterly (probably in a university library, or at the house of your scholarly minded Joyce-freak friend).
The latest issue of the James Joyce Quarterly also features an article co-authored by Waywords and Meansigns contributor Ollie Evans, art scholar Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, and Waywords and Meansigns director Derek Pyle. “Joyce Smithy: A Curated Review of Joyce in Visual Art, Music, and Performance” will be an annual review in the Quarterly highlighting various Joyce-inspired works. One of the review’s main goals is “provid[ing] Joyce scholars and students with listings and short explanatory or interpretative notes on work that they would not normally encounter”.
We are thrilled to have “Joyce Smithy” included in the Quarterly. While by no means do we want our work confined or limited to scholarly circles, the review seems like a natural extension of the Joyce in Music page on this site, where we offer a chronological history of Joyce’s influence on mainstream, side-stream and no-stream music. We always welcome suggestions and additions to that list (and anything else that you think should be included in “Joyce Smithy”), just drop a line to Derek at waywordsandmeansigns@gmail.com.