Helen Marten's Debut Novel 'The Boiled in Between' Explores Language and Architecture

Helen Marten, the British Turner Prize-winning artist, published her first novel 'The Boiled in Between' in September 2020 through Prototype. She took a year away from her visual art studio to write the book, describing the process as a 'conceptual rearrange' and a liberation from logistical concerns. Marten's writing shares the multifarious aesthetic of her sculptures, with sentences that explode into swirling narratives reminiscent of Gordon Lish's wordplay. During the pandemic, she relocated from her London home to the Netherlands, living by the sea. The novel revolves around architectural spaces of homes, examining buildings as weapons or bodies with galvanic circuitry. Marten approaches language as she does material, lining up familiar signifiers until meanings negate themselves. She listened to audiobooks like 'Crime and Punishment' and works by Cormac McCarthy while writing. A solo exhibition of her new drawings is on view at Sadie Coles HQ in London through 17 October. The interview was conducted by Ross Simonini over email, revealing Marten's reading habits include Ben Marcus's 'The Age of Wire and String' and current works by Elfriede Jelinek, Diane Williams, and Colson Whitehead.