Cut-ups and Cosmographs

Between 1959 and 1961, the poet Harold Norse lived at the “Beat Hotel,” along with his better-known contemporaries, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. Although Norse was involved in the development of the cut-up process, he has been airbrushed out of most accounts. Even less well-known is Norse’s contribution to visual art. During his stay at the “Beat Hotel,” Norse developed a painting method that he called Cosmographs, which he created by throwing Pelican inks onto Bristol paper, which were then rinsed off in a bidet. The results created proto psychedelic maps of inner and outer space. The Cosmographs were exhibited at Librairie Anglaise on the rue de Seine, with an introduction by William Burroughs. This chapter will discuss the Cosmographs in order to raise several questions about Norse’s role as a Beat and avant-garde artist, as well as the multi-disciplinary nature of the Beat Generation. How does Norse develop the aleatory technique through visual art? And how might this be seen as a precursor to Burroughs’ “Shotgun art?” How might we connect Norse’s “map-like images of inner and outer-space” with the work of Burroughs?