Art Journal | Vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer 1982)

Art Journal

Vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer 1982)

New York City, USA:  College Art Association of America, Inc., 1982

184 pp., 27.7 x 21.5 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Guest edited by Clive Phillpot, the Summer 1982 issue of Art Journal features a cover by Davi Det Hompson that reads “You should see the pages I’ve been typing. You should see the pages I’ve ben typing”. 

It also includes Kangaroo? (Some Songs byArt & Language and the Red Crayola), Why Write? by Daniel Buren, Color/Language Studies 1973-82 by lain Baxter, Extracts from Personhood's Self-Cancellation by Henry Flynt, Notes from Art by Lawrence Weiner, The Definitive/ist Manifesto by the Guerilla Art Action Group, and contributions by Ben Vautier, Les Levine, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and others. 

The periodical is available from Specific Object, for $75 US, here. 

"The best example I have found, post-XTC, benefits from an additional measure of ambiguity. Go 2’s visual rigour links it to the text-based conceptual art of its day and FitzGerald’s cover has a similarly exacting air. Arriving four years after Go 2 [see previous post], an issue of Art Journal devoted to ‘Words and Wordworks’ takes textual self-reflexiveness a step further by printing the same cover line – ‘You should see the pages I’ve been typing ’ – twice between scratchy rules. Davi Det Hompson’s blown-up, ink-splodged letters clatter with resonance. The Fluxus artist and concrete poet’s work can be found inside the issue. I rarely say it, but here less is more."

- Rick Poynor, Eye no. 104 vol. 26, 2023

Ray Johnson | A Book About Death

Ray Johnson

A Book About Death

New York City, USA: Self published, 1963-65

26 pp.,  35.5 x 21.5 cm., loose leaves

Edition size unknown

The pages of A Book About Death were offset printed offset by Johnson at the Pernet Printing Company, and mailed out - unbound - to members of his "New York Correspondence School”. He he purposefully did not send every page to any single reader in order to avoid the assemblage of a complete book. 

He numbered the last page 15, with 13 and 14 never being produced. This was possibly out of superstition surrounding the number 13, or as a way to prevent anyone from amassing the completed book. 

Clive Phillpot is considered the leading scholar on the work Johnson. The two corresponded from 1981 to 1994 (Johnson took his own life in January of ’95). Philpot places the sequence of the book as follows: 

1. “Mary Crehan, 4 choked to death…” [3/8/63]

2. “Cigar Bands from the Diane…” [3/15/63]

3. “Aunt Fritzi—What’s This?…” [9/10/63]

4.  “8 Ton Show…Robin Gallery” [10/22/63]

5.  “Andy Warhol” [11/5/63]

6. “Michael Malce…” [3/17/64]

7. “Anne and Bill… The Bad Ara…” [4/17/64]

8. “Zuckerman Harpsichords” [5/8/64]

9. “Cara Men Nda Mara” [7/8/64]

10. “Send 96…A Brick Snake…” [10/1/64]

11. “Cigar Band from the Ami Lowell…” [11/11/64]

12.  “Send 96… Fred Herko…” [12/22/64]

 15. “Boom… Papa R Snake…” [2/19/65]

"If A Book About Death were finished, it would lose much of its meaning as a process rather than a product. A Book About Death, first planned as a whole that could close around itself like the ouroboros on PAGE 1, had to become an open book, indefinite and undecidable. For Ray, a closed book could be like a death, just as dying could be like closing a book. Because Ray wanted death to be an open book, his A Book about Death had to remain incomplete, with pages that would never be read.” 

- Bill Wilson, A Book About A Book About Death

Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection

[Fluxus] Clive Phillpot, Jon Hendricks
Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection
New York City, USA: Museum of Modern Art, 1988
64 pp., 20.5 x 20.5 cm., softcover
Edition size unknown

The Museum of Modern Art's first exhibition dedicated to Fluxus was installed in the gallery library and curated by then-Director of the Library Clive Phillpot. The exhibition, which ran from November 17th, 1988 to March 10th, 1989, consisted of works from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. The works included instruction drawings, correspondence, photographs, newsletters, posters, multiples, bookworks and various other ephemera.

The catalogue includes texts by Phillpot and Jon Hendricks, who was the curator of Silverman collection at the time, and remains the leading authority on the subject of Fluxus publications. In 2008, twenty years after this exhibition, the Silverman's donated their collection of Fluxus works to the MoMA, where they are available to researchers.

The catalogue cover features Yoko Ono's documentation of a performance called The Museum of Modern [F]Art, altered with a few scribbles and collaged images of George Macuinas. The pages of the book also contain marginalia by Ben Vautier. Some are classic Vautier: "Do you think this page is jealous of the next one?"; while others appear to be channeling Ono: "Imagine yourself as a branch of the tree out of which this page was made", "Look through this hole at the world", etc.

The museum recently made the catalogue - now out of print, though not expensive on the secondary market - available as a PDF. Download the entire book at the MoMA site, here.

Ray Johnson | 8 Man Show 5 at Willenpecker Gallery

Ray Johnson
8 Man Show 5 at Willenpecker Gallery 
New York City, USA: Self-published, 1968
Set of 5 Cards
Edition size unknown


Five cards (of diminishing size) advertising an 8-man show, each of which features only four artists, and no information regarding location, dates or times. Additionally, Johnson's name is misspelled on three of the the cards. The painter Robert Benson is also misspelled as Benton, possibly alluding to the Oscar winner film director of Kramer vs Kramer, who - at the time - was the art director of Esquire magazine. George Brecht becomes Mrs Brecht in the third iteration.

The cards pictured above were mailed to the critic Lawrence Alloway and to then-MoMA librarian Clive Phillpot, whose name is also incorrectly spelled.

The first two exhibitions take place at the Robin Gallery, the second two at the Woodpecker Gallery, and the final at the Willenpecker Gallery. All three are the invention of the artist. Robin Gallery is possibly a play on Anita Reuben's Reuben Gallery, a space that became synonymous with the Happenings of Allan Kaprow (who Johnson would sometimes mock with his own 'Nothings'). Willenpecker Gallery might have been an allusion to the painter John Willenbecher.

The rear-endpaper (an accidental pun he might approve) of Johnson's Something Else Press artist book The Paper Snake also includes a reference to the fictitious 8 Man Show, as does a small advertisement he placed in the Village Voice newspaper on July 30th, 1964 (below). Both feature the image of a snake, suggesting that the 8 in 8-man might also refer to a snake or infinity symbol.

A set of four of these cards are available from Printed Matter, here, for $200 US.

Every Building on the Sunset Strip article in Modern Painters

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip, critic Bill Clarke interviewed Clive Phillpot (the founder of NY MoMA's artist book collection and one of the world's leading authorities on artists' publications), and three artists who've made work based on Ruscha's classic: myself, Jonathan Monk and painter Amy Park. The article features in the May issue of Blouin's Modern Painters, on newsstands now.

Monk photographs the sun setting on Sunset, and rather than the inclusive approach of Ruscha, excludes all of the buildings - photographing only the intersections in None of the Buildings on the Sunset Strip.

My bookwork replaces the images with text, including information about every property featured in Ruscha's title. The book is sold with a print, each of which couples an image from the original with the same scene captured in a film or television production.

For Ed Ruscha's Every Building in the Sunset Strip, New York painter Amy Park has painted the photographs from the book as a 97-foot long work that's currently on display at the Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles.

Below are examples of the same buildings as they appear in the two projects, and two images from Monk's 2002 title.

The Founding and Early History of Printed Matter

On Friday February 13th, Printed Matter will present a round table discussion about their founding and early years, for what they call "an extremely rare gathering of luminaries" from their illustrious history.

Participants include artist Mike Glier (who served on the board and staff of the organization between 1979 and 2000), writer/curator/activist Lucy Lippard (founding member of PM), artist Pat Steir (founding board member), Clive Phillpot (leading authority on the subject of artists' books), and artist Martha Wilson.

The discussion will range from the vision and principles behind Printed Matter to practical aspects of setting up and running such an institution. Moderated by Printed Matter’s current Director Max Schumann (who has worked with the organization as bookstore manager for twenty-five years), the conversation will also address Printed Matter's involvement in advancing and legitimizing the field of artists' publications.

The event is being held at the Judson Memorial Church, which has it's own rich history with artist-run culture (see post here). The church is located at 55 Washington Square South (wheelchair accessible via the entrance at 243 Thompson Street) and the discussion takes place in the Meeting Room, between 6:30 and 8:00pm.

For more information, see the Facebook group, here.

Clive Phillpot at Printed Matter

Clive Phillpot's highly anticipated Booktrek: Selected Essays on Artists' Books (1972-2010) will be launched at Printed Matter, where Phillpot served as a Board member for fourteen years, and president as two. The event takes place Tuesday September 17th from 5 to 7 PM.

On the following Thursday, Phillpot will deliver one of this year's keynote talks at Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair, as part of the Contemporary Artists Book Conference. He will be joined in conversation by Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art. For more information and ticket reservations please visit the fair's site here.