Abstract
This article explores the differences, if not incompatibility, between the para- or even post-conceptual work of Édouard Levé, and the sort of canonical conceptualism promoted in Craig Dworkin and Kenneth Goldsmith's anthology, Against Expression, as well the practice of three American conceptualists. The exploration takes place on the basis of an historical excursus into the various conceptualist traditions, a theoretical exploration of media-based conceptual theory, a discussion of the work of three "staple" con-temporary conceptualists, and finally a detailed probe into Levé's writing career based on a comparative reading with Goldsmith's conceptualist praxis tice.
The article makes a case against simple appropriation of the oeuvre of Edouard Levé for the conceptualist cause by showing how his first text exhibits an ex-plicit conceptual intention but thwarts its accomplishment, and the other three perform a rewriting of conceptual tenets that entails a break from conceptualist aesthetics and poetics.