LEARNING TO COUNT

Starting from the trivial or rooted into fantasy, the poems and short stories collected in “Learning to Count” – Michael Van den Abeele’s second book of this kind – veer into the grotesque or the bizarre, revealing the glitches of a reality that is just waiting to hallucinate. In the eponymous text, “Learning to Count,” Van den Abeele reflects on an iconic photograph of the Ramones, standing against a wall, all dressed in identical jeans. Is this forest of legs ornament, or crime? Do ripped trousers still hold any political significance? What social beliefs make a community?

Marked by anxiety and detachment, the “I” in Van den Abeele’s stories find himself in situations that drift toward unspeakable truths, bittersweet awakenings, or darker insights. Yet Van den Abeele’s prose also tackles the exuberance of Baroque church, or reflects on the ubiquity of burrata on restaurant menus— not to mention the connections between romantic love and making sandwiches.

Often written to be read and performed, Van den Abeele’s texts stand out for the originality of their style, their unique humor, their distinctive sense of detail, and the author’s ability to make unexpected connections between Cézanne and Matrix, Wile E. Coyote and Roland Barthes, or motherhood and landscape gardening.

This book is published in conjunction with Michael Van den Abeele’s exhibition Ouija at CRAC Alsace (Fall–Winter 2026/2027) and is also available in French.

Co-published with CRAC Alsace

11 x 18 cm, 116 pages, English
ISBN: 9782492650253