Guillem Viladot (Agramunt, 1922 – Barcelona, 1999) was a Catalan writer and visual poet. His work, created on the margins of literary circles, revolts against any form of authority, both institutional and interiorized, and often questions and crosses the boundaries of genre. A pharmacologist by training, he began writing novels in the late 1950s and at the same time, following his 1959 ‘Metaplasms’ and 1960 LA-URT, became a forerunner of the Concrete Poets. He nursed a growing interest in psychoanalysis from the 1970s onwards, which became evident both in his novels and his poetry, including the posthumous collection Ruth (2000). In the nineties, he opened ‘Lo Pardal’, a space for visual poetry, which later became a museum dedicated to his memory. Across his career, he collaborated with various publications, among them Diari de Lleida, El Observador, La Vanguardia, Avui and Destino. He was an honorary member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers and, in 1993, received the Cruz de Sant Jordi.

• Ruth