Brief aan A. van der Boom Possibly 1934 - 1939

This letter, addressed to A. van der Boom, was written by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst on 2 September 1934. The handwritten script sprawls across the page, creating a visual field of looping lines and varied densities. Holst's use of line here is particularly striking. The words cascade down the page, their legibility challenged by the expressive quality of the script. The ink bleeds slightly into the paper, blurring the edges of each character, which speaks to a tension between clarity and ambiguity. Considered through a structuralist lens, the letter functions as a linguistic system, where the sender's intended meaning is mediated through the instability of language itself. The script resists easy decoding, complicating the relationship between signifier and signified. It invites us to consider how the materiality of the letter—the texture of the paper, the flow of the ink—contributes to its overall meaning.