Maurizio Nannucci | M 40/1967

Maurizio Nannucci

M 40/1967

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Edition Multi Art Points, 1976

184 pp., 8.25 x 6 x .075", softcover with dustjacket in box

Edition of 1000

One of my favorite artist's books, made as a tribute to the Olivetti typewriter M 40, consisting entirely of single-character typewriter grids. Given the experimentation with typography and the concrete poetry of the day, the work is remarkably restrained. It's also beautifully produced in an elegant white clamshell box. 

I'm not sure what the year 1967 in the title refers to, as the M40 was produced twenty and thirty years prior (in '67 the Olivetti Diaspron 82 was released). It’s possible that the work was typed in ’67 and not published until ’76. 

Of the one thousand copies produced, 250 are signed and numbered and also include three graphics.

The auction photographs below suggest that the clamshell box is flimsy and easily destroyed, but this is not the case, unless two versions were produced. I received my copy directly from the artist and it remains in pristine condition. The box is safely reinforced. 

The above spiral-bound spread is from Nannucci’s 1999 monograph Where to Start From? (still available from Printed Matter for only $66.00 US). The work is listed as from 1969 here, also. 

"Nannucci subjects words to an analytical cataloguing. M40, 1967, is the model number of an Olivetti typewriter used to fill up the 90 sheets of paper that constitute the work. Each sheet contains a letter that is repeated until it fills the entire surface. This rational stance is accompanied by a fondness for paradox—the photographic sequence of the hand that attempts to write on water—or the inclination to produce tautological propositions. Moreover, paradox and tautology are the rhetorical figures that most effectively make the limits of language emblematic. Beginning with this awareness, Nannucci adopts neon writing to “name” language and in particular color, a principal element of artistic expression.”

- Giorgio Verzotti, Artforum