Chance Encounters and Textual Instabilities: Ry Nikonova’s Archives

Throughout decades of creative practice, the Russian poet and publisher Ry Nikonova (1942–2014) produced thousands of artworks, poems, books, songs, performances, letters, and more. In addition to publishing the samizdat journals Nomer and Transponans with Serge Segay, Nikonova painted, wrote, and made hundreds of artists’ books. She was prolific in both her work and documentation of her creative activities. When studying Nikonova, the first thing that must be confronted is her vast archive—spread across several countries—full of books, magazines, ephemera, lists, letters, telephone books, artwork, receipts, and more. Nikonova’s work blurred the lines between author and reader, and her books and journals defied the boundaries of roles assigned to author and editor, building an ongoing practice that led her to live a creative existence beyond the scope of late Soviet restrictions. To bridge the gap of untold histories and literary studies, I propose that work such as Nikonova’s is best served by new methodologies that are not based on values of completeness and result, but rather instability and chance. This article argues that chance, as an embodied archival practice, is an exciting and viable method for engaging the work of such dynamic and under-researched artists.