At nearly 400 pages in length, Lip Service is Bruce Andrews's major poetry work of the 1990s. The book is divided into ten 'planets' corresponding to the ten 'bodies' of the Paradiso, each of which is in turn divided into ten sections. Andrews draws on resonances between the semiotic rubble of late capitalist society (overh eard or found phrases and words gathered over a four-year period, then meticulously organized and edited) and Charles Singleton's translation of Dante to create a bleak vision of a contemporary world where vanity and self-regard are paramount, love is nothing but pretense and dissimulation, and mutability and immutability are inverted.

Poet Bruce Andrews poet was one of the key figures in the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E movement. His first book, Edge, was published in 1973. With Charles Bernstein, he edited L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Magazine, which ran to 13 issues between 19 78 and 1980. Andrews has published over 40 books of poetry, including Lip Service (Coach House Books, 2001), I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (Sun & Moon Press, 1992) and Ex Why Zee: Performance Texts, Collaborations with Sally Silvers, Word Maps, Bricolage & Improvisation (Roof Books, 1995).

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