The “historical” avant-gardes of the first decades of the 20th century (futurism, expressionism, dadaism, and constructivism) represent a challenge to modern textual and literary scholarship. A part of a critical rupture from the literary tradition the avant-gardes introduced novel cross-aesthetic genres such as typographic poems, montages, artists’ books and little magazines, in which the visual and material features of the printed medium (format, layout, type face and illustrations) were used as important means of expression. This material calls for a broader concept of “text” which is not restricted to the linguistic sequence of words, and for a broader concept of “literature” which is not limited to imaginative literature (belles-lettres) in the romantic sense of the term. On the basis of modern editorial theory, book history, and visual semiotics, this article sketches out a critical concept of the text that pay heed to the layers of meanings embodied in the non-verbal features of texts. This reconsideration of the concept of texts also implies a new way of conceiving literary history. Instead of a traditional approach to literary history (work- or author-oriented), the article suggest to adopt a more sociological approach to the history of the avant-garde conceived as an international network of writers, artists and activists. Examples are drawn from Russian and Italian Futurism, and the Danish poet Harald Landt Momberg’ publicist activities in the context of the Copenhagen New Student Society (1922-24).