Nichol's attitude towards writing (apparent or implicit) [is] one of the keys to an understanding of his work.

Nichol's goal is to escape from the barriers of what Edward Sapir terms "a straight ideational language" in order to "return to the root elements of both the written and aural language." Sapir, Nichol's main source for this theory, also asserts that "ideation reigns supreme in language." In order to counteract this domination, Nichol thinks that "something new must be done with words." One such possibility is to "leave the beauty out" of words, and another is to "begin again by breaking words up to let the staleness out of them." Nichol explores both these areas in an attempt to break down the barriers which prevent poetry from achieving its full scope. (pp. 126-27)

Nichol's typographical poems range from the simple (in Still Water) to the complex (in bp). Still...