Livre-écran is a retro-futuristic composition placing traditional literature and the digital medium in juxtaposition and dialogue.

The digital English poem translates, samples and remixes the words from a book that surveys the history and movements of French literature. The open page, acting as the input or source text, is from the chapter on the French moralists, whose preferred literary form was the maxim – pithy statements on psychology, moral conduct and general truths. The attention-grabbing wit and brevity of the maxim makes it a form especially well-suited to a contemporary, digitally-mediated readership. The translated and remixed English poem on the screen – “the diverse dimensions of reality veil sublimated contradictions and infinite truths” – written in the form and style of the maxim, is also an invitation to reflect on singularity and difference, dissemblance and truth.