All of Nichol's work is stamped by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. In The Martyrology different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being. Language is both the poet's instructor and, through its various permutations, the dominant 'image' of the poem. The [nine] books of The Martyrology document a poet's quest for insight into himself andhis writing through scrupulous attention to the messages hidden in the morphology of his own speech.' - Frank Davey
bpNichol was the author of numerous books of poetry, including In England Now That Spring (co-authored with Steve McCaffery), Truth: A Book of Fictions and nine volumes of The Martyrology , as well as four novels, several books for children and one collection of short fiction. A founding member of the sound poetry quartet The Four Horsemen, Nichol was recognized internationally as one of themajor avant-garde writers of his time. Besides his small press andmagazine editorial activities (including Ganglia, grOnk and Underwhich Editions), he was a great collaborator with many artists in the areas of writing, sound poetry performance, and linguistic research.