Dan Graham

Dan Graham was born on this day, in 1942.

Panamarenko | Das Flug Zeug

Panamarenko

Das Flug Zeug

Monchengladbach, Germany: Stadtisches Museum Monchengladbach, 1969

21 x 17 x 3 cm.

Edition of 330 numbered copies

Last week I gave a talk to Amish Morrell’s OCADU Publishing class and spoke about, amongst other things, the brilliant boxed Stadtisches Museum catalogues. Today I came across an earlier Powerpoint presentation from a talk I gave to his class eight years ago. It also included the same works. 

I first featured them here eleven years ago, and with any excuse will repost them (such as a new photograph, or scrap of information). 

The series began in 1967, when Joseph Beuys was invited to present his first ever museum solo exhibition at the Stadtisches Museum in Mönchengladbach, Germany. There were no funds in the budget for an accompanying catalogue, just a small brochure printed on the cheapest paper stock.

Beuys - who had published a boxed work with Edition Rene Block the year prior - proposed a catalogue/multiple hybrid, and the influential series was born.

Rather than illustrate the exhibitions, the boxed works were typically an independent artistic project, some without any reference to the accompanying show at all. Many did include essays and exhibition check lists, but they might also contain found objects, an artists’ production or other interventions into the format.

The Stadtisches series continued into the mid-eighties when the curator left the museum. In eighteen years the institution produced thirty-five boxed publications, playing an important contribution in the evolution of the artists’ catalogue.

One of the simplest and most effective is Das Flug Zeug by Panamarenko. The work consists of a cardboard box with a photograph of the artist next to a Dakota airplane glued to the cover. A single-page of text about the exhibition is glued to the underside of the box. Inside is a rolled parcel string affixed to both the box and lid, by adhesive tape. The string’s length is identical to the wingspan of the largest of the aircrafts presented in the exhibition. 

Geza Perneczky | Stamp International (Secret)

Géza Perneczky

Stamp International (Secret)

Cologne, Germany: Self-published, 1980

[16] pp., 10.5 x 15 cm., loose-leaves

Edition size unknown

A set of eight artists’ postcards each featuring the word ‘Secret’ rubber-stamped in white in eight different languages (Arabic, Bulgarian, English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, and Spanish) housed in a C6 envelope rubber-stamped with the title. 

KAWS /Brian Donnelly | Bendy (Red)

KAWS /Brian Donnelly

Bendy (Red)

Tokyo, Japan: Medicom Toy, 2003

33 x 7 x 3 cm.

Open edition

A painted vinyl multiple produced in an unlimited edition, housed in a clear acrylic box. The work was also available in blue, yellow and green. 

Nona Faustine | White Shoes

Nona Faustine

White Shoes

London, UK: MACK, 2021

72 pp., 30 x 29 cm., hardcover

Edition size unknown

Nona Faustine first began the White Shoes series after reading about Sarah Baartman, an enslaved Khoekhoe woman who was exhibited as a freak show attraction in 19th-century Europe, under the name Hottentot Venus. In the series, the artist photographed herself naked except for a pair of white high heels in each of New York City’s five boroughs, in locations historically associated with the slave trade. 

The large-format self-portraits take place in public, at the sites of former burial grounds, the farms of slave-owners and locations where slaves ships docked. The most notorious image features Faustine in the freezing cold, naked but for a pair of white pumps, in the middle of the intersection at 74 Wall Street (Seamen's Savings Bank) where enslaved people were once auctioned. 

Faustine died a week ago today, in New York. She was forty-eight. Her death was announced by her gallerist Higher Pictures, and no cause was given. 

Bas Jan Ader | I’m too sad to tell you

Bas Jan Ader

I’m too sad to tell you

Los Angeles, USA: Meliksetian | Briggs, 2024

41.7 x 55.9 cm. [paper size], 36.5 x 50.8 cm. [image size]

Edition of 75 numbered copies [+ 10 APs]

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Bas Jan Ader’s fateful voyage - where a performance work led to the artist’s disappearance/death at sea - his estate have released the first in a series of planned editioned works. 

Produced in collaboration with Meliksetian | Briggs, the photographic text work I’m too sad to tell you, from 1970, is a digital silver gelatin print on 350 gsm fiber-based paper, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the estate. 

I’m too sad to tell you is one of the defining images of ‘romantic conceptualism’. Released last December, the work is available for $1,975.00 USD, here. 

 

Sally Mann | A Thousand Crossings

Sally Mann

A Thousand Crossings

New York City, USA: Abrams, 2018

[332], 29 x 27 cm., hardcover

Edition of 500 signed and numbered copies

Housed in a dark grey cloth slipcase, this monograph was published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Peabody Essex Museum. The title features 230 of Mann’s photographs, and essays by Sarah Greenough, Sarah Kennel, Hilton Als, Malcolm Daniel, and Drew Gilpin Faust. It is considered the most comprehensive book on the acclaimed and controversial photographer.  It instantly sold out upon publication. 

This week Tarrant County, Texas, dropped its legal case against Mann and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. A grand jury declined to take action regarding allegations that the museum had displayed child pornography when presenting images of Mann's unclothed children. 

The fate of four confiscated works remain in limbo. 

Taryn Simon | Mono Edition #3

[Taryn Simon]

Mono Edition #3

Berlin, Germany: Mono.Kultur

48 pp.,  20 x 15 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Issue #3 of Mono Edition magazine is dedicated to the work of photographer Taryn Simon. Packaged in a glassine envelope, the issue features free softcover pamphlets and printed cards. 

Little Caesar #8

Dennis Cooper [ed]

Little Caesar #8

Los Angeles, USA: Little Caesar Press, 1979

[72 ]pp., 5.5 x 8.5”, staple-bound

Edition size unknown

Dennis Cooper published his first book of poetry at the age of 20, and began his own poetry zine at the age of 23. Little Caesar evolved into book-sized magazine expanding beyond poetry. Cooper wrote: "Maybe we're crazy but we think there can be a literary journal that's loved and powerful. We want a magazine that's read by poetry fans, the rock culture, the Hari Krishnas, the Dodgers. We think it can be done, and that's what we're aiming at.”

The periodical published twelve issues between 1976 and 1982. It featured interviews with John Lydon, teen pop idol Leif Garrett, Joe Brainard, Gram Parsons, porn director Toby Ross and many others. Contributors included Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Nico, Rene Ricard,  Debbie Harry, Brian Eno,

"We're not fifty year old patrons of the arts. We're young punks just like you, and just because Kenneth Rexroth's got a name in some crowds doesn't mean a wink's gonna get his rickety old crap in here. He comes through the back door like everyone else,” Cooper declared. 

Issue #8 features the iconic nude image of Iggy Pop on the cover and content inside by Allen Ginsberg, Gerard Malanga (whose photographs include portraits of William Burroughs, Mick Jagger, John Cage, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, and Anita Pallenberg),  The Ramones and The Clash, portraits by Maria Resnick, and more.

Copies in good condition are scarce sell for between seven and eight hundred dollars. 

Envelope Doodles