Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction: Ball and Hammer / Jeffrey T. Schnapp -- Tenderenda the Fantast / Hugo Ball -- The Rise of the Seer -- Johann the Carousel Horse -- The Decline of the Dance Maker -- The Red Heavens -- Satanopolis -- The Grand Hotel Metaphysics -- Bulbo's Prayer and the Roasted Poet -- Hymn 1 -- Hymn 2 -- The Director of Decay -- Jolifanto Bamblo O Falli Bamblo -- Hymn 3 -- Laurentius Tenderenda -- Baubo Sbugi Ninga Gloffa -- Mr. and Mrs. Goldkopf -- Formative Esotericism in Zurich Dada: A Revisionist Reading of Tenderenda the Fantast / Jonathan Hammer.

"In this book, Jonathan Hammer offers a new translation of Hugo Ball's visionary novella, Tenderenda the Fantast, along with his own unique Tenderenda-inspired images. The resulting "dialogue" between Ball, the founder of Zurich Dada, and Hammer, a contemporary artist, casts new light on Dadaism and its postmodern legacies."

"In Tenderenda, composed between 1914 and 1920, Ball recounts a hallucinatory tale of his own Dada enchantment and disenchantment. Jeffrey T. Schnapp introduces the book, elaborating the cultural and historical context of Ball's work and situating Hammer's work in relation to Dada. In a concluding essay, Hammer probes various aspects of Ball's asceticism, spirituality, and sexuality to arrive at a revisionist interpretation of Zurich Dada and the origins of modernism as well as postmodern art-making."--Jacket.