Artists’ Chocolate

 

Documenta 5

[Harald Szeemann, Ed Ruscha, etc.]

Documenta 5

Kassel, Germany: Documenta, 1972

[776] pp., 26.7 × 31.8 × 8.3 cm., ring binding and acetate slipcase

Edition size uknown

The fifth edition of Documenta was held between the 30th of June and the 8th of October, 1972 in Kassel, West Germany. Curated by Harald Szeemann, the title of the exhibition was: Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute [Questioning Reality – Pictorial worlds today]. 

Over a hundred and fifty artists participated, including Vito Acconci, Vincenzo Agnetti, Giovanni Anselmo, Archigram, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Georg Baselitz, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, George Brecht, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Castelli, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Walter De Maria, Gino de Dominicis, Marcel Duchamp, Luciano Fabro, Hamish Fulton, Gilbert & George, Hans Haacke, Duane Hanson, Eva Hesse, Rebecca Horn, Rolf Iseli, Jasper Johns, Edward Kienholz, Imi Knoebel, Jannis Kounellis, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Ingeborg Luscher, Mario Merz, Gustav Metzger, Malcolm Morley, Ed Moses, Bruce Nauman, Hermann Nitsch, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Robin Page, Blinky Palermo, Panamarenko, Giulio Paolini, A.R. Penck, Giuseppe Penone, Vettor Pisani, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Posen, Arnulf Rainer, Gerhard Richter, Dorothea Rockburne, Edward Ruscha, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Lucas Samaras, Richard Serra, Paul Sharits, Allan Shields, Katharina Sieverding, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Klaus Staeck, Paul Staiger, Jorge Stever, Robert Strubin, Paul Thek, Wayne Thiebaud, Andre Thomkins, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, Ben Vautier, Franz Erhard Walther, Robert Watts, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, John Wesley, William Wiley, Rolf Winnewisser, La Monte Young, Peter Young, and Gilberto Zorio.

Ed Ruscha designed the binder-format catalogue for with a bright orange cover featuring a screen-printed image of ants forming the number five, with a few that have wondered away to the verso of the binder. 

The publication includes entries for each individual artist, accessible via tab dividers. 

Aspen Magazine – Art/Information/Science (#8)

Dan Graham (editor)

Aspen Magazine – Art/Information/Science (#8)

New York City, USA: Aspen Communications Inc., 1970

28.5 x 28.5 cm

Edition size unknown

Aspen magazine was a multimedia periodical published by Phyllis Johnson, who described it as "the first three-dimensional magazine.” 

Contained in a customized cardboard box or folder, an issue of Aspen may have included booklets, posters, postcards, flexidisc records or films on Super8 reels. 

Aspen #8 is often referred to as “The Fluxus Issue”, presumably because George Maciunas was responsible for the design. However, other than Maciunas, the only artists involved with the publication who were active in Fluxus were Jackson MacLow and La Monte Young, who contributed the recordings on the flexi-disc. MacLow’s Young Turtle Assymetries, chance-generated poems for five simultaneous readers, was the A-side, backed with Young’s Drift Study 31 1 69.

The folder also included a poster version of Ed Ruscha’s Thirty-four Parking Lots, a text by Robert Smithson, and scores by Eleanor & David Antin, Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Other featured artists included Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Robert Morris, and Yvonne Rainer.

"This issue where artists have conceived and (in part) designed their contributions as pieces and part of a larger schema may aid in redefining the magazine's place in (and as) art in (and as participant in), the larger world. It suggests further scope and proposals.”

- Aspen #8 Editorial Note