Laurie Anderson | Notebook

Laurie Anderson

Notebook

New York City, USA: Collation Center, 1977

47 pp., 14 x 18 cm., softcover

Edition of 1000

A small, oblong Artist’s Book (Anderson's second) documents compositions for electronic violin performed in various ourdoor city spaces. The contents include Film/song in 24/24 time, Duets on ice, Two songs for violin and projector, Duet for door jamb and violin, etc.

“Duets On Ice was performed at five locations in New York City in 1974 and three places in Genoa, Italy, in 1975. The concerts were performed on a violin with a built-in speaker...a self-playing violin. Half the music was on tape, coming out of the violin. The other half was played, simultaneously, live. The timing depended on the a pair of ice-skates, their blades frozen in blocks of ice. When the ice melted, the concert was over.”

- Laurie Anderson, Notebook

La Monte Young | Composition 1960, #5

"Composition 1960, #5 reads:

Turn a butterfly (or any number of butterflies) loose in the performance area. When the composition is

over, be sure to allow the butterfly to fly away outside. The composition may be any length, but if an unlimited amount of time is available, the doors and windows may be opened before the butterfly is turned loose and the composition may be considered finished when the butterfly flies away.

When I sent copies of Compositions 1960, Numbers 2 Through 5 to some of my friends, I received different comments from all of them concerning which ones they liked or disliked with one exception. Almost all of them wrote back to me saying ‘they liked Number 5 which consists, quite simply of turning a butterfly or any number of butterflies loose in the auditorium. Diane agreed that it was a very lovely piece and said it would seem almost impossible for anyone not to like it. At any rate, I had hoped to perform either Composition 1960 #2 which consists of building a fire in front of the audience, or Composition 1960 #5, the butterfly piece, on whatever program came up next. Thus, when the time arrived to do another noon concert of contemporary music at the University in Berkeley, I told a friend who was communicating with the director of the noon concerts that I would like t o do either Composition 1960 #2 or #5. The next day he phoned and said he had asked the director. The director had said that both pieces were absolutely out of the question. I was shocked. I could easily understand anyone's concern for a fire in the auditorium, but what could be wrong with a butterfly? Well, Compositions 1960 Numbers 2 and 5 were banned from the auditorium and we performed Composition 1960 #4 instead. Sometime afterward Diane received a letter from Susan, who was visiting in New York. At the end of the letter she wrote, "I

saw a boy in the park today running, quite terrified, from a small yellow butterfly.”

- La Monte Young

Richard Tipping | Six by Six by Six

Richard Tipping

Six by Six by Six

New York City, USA: Purgatory Pie Press, 1999

[6] pp., 16 x 16 cm., softcover

Edition of 216 signed and numbered copies

A six by six accordion bound bookwork with wordworks by Richard Tipping, hand typography by Dikko Faust and art direction by Esther K. Smith. The book - printed on all rag museum board - is signed by all three. 

Tauba Auerbach | Marbles for the John J. Harvey

Tauba Auerbach

Marbles for the John J. Harvey

New York City, USA: Diagonal Press, 2018.

104 pp., 9 x 11”, spiral-bound

Edition size unknown

Tauba Auerbach established Diagonal Press in 2013 with a mission to "make art in the form of publications.” The press produces books in open editions, and nothing is signed or numbered. They aim to "devise a business structure in which the publications are affordable and their value determined by what one gets out of owning them, rather than from reselling them.”

This laser-printed, plastic comb-bound book with a die-cut cover sells for $28.00, here. 

"In 2018 I was commissioned by Public Art Fund and 14-18 Now to dazzle the John J. Harvey, an historic fireboat in the New York Harbor. Built in 1931 and retired in 1994, the Harvey was rescued at a scrap auction by a group of maritime enthusiasts. Since then, the boat has been maintained by volunteers, operating as a small museum and offering free rides to the public. The Harvey became an unexpected hero on 9/11, springing back into service and pumping water for 80 hours. The story is memorialized in a Maira Kalman book.

Dazzle Camouflage was a painting strategy invented by the artist Norman Wilkinson during WWI. Usually comprised of sharp, contrasting, stripey designs, dazzle was devised to confuse rather than conceal. For my interpretation of the tradition, I marbled paper to generate high contrast images of fluid behaviours. This book chronicles the project and compiles a selection of the unused designs."

- Tauba Auerbach

bpNichol | birds emerging from alphabet

 

Keith Haring | Luna Luna, A Poetic Extravaganza!

Keith Haring 

Luna Luna, A Poetic Extravaganza!

Langley, UK:  Van der Meer Paper Design Limited, 1986

30.5 x 30.5 cm. [folded],  61 x 30.5 cm. [unfolded]

Edition of 2000 

Almost three decades before Banksy’s Dismaland, Austrian artist André Heller created Luna Luna - an open-air museum and amusement park in Hamburg, Germany, in the summer of 1987. The project was an attempt to "create a travelling terrain of modern art, that in the centuries-old principle of the fairground involves people of all ages and educational levels in playful acts”. He commissioned thirty-two of the "most important artists of the period” to design the attractions. 

Participating artists included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delaunay, David Hockney,  Roy Lichtenstein,  Kenny Scharf, Jean Tinguely, Roland Topor, and Keith Haring, who created a merry-go-round [see below]. 

The artists received $10,000 each, with Heller arguing "Listen, you are constantly getting the greatest commissions, everyone wants your paintings or sculptures, but I am inviting you to take a trip back to your own childhood. You can design your very own amusement park, just as you think would be right today.”

The event featured a reflective fun-house pavilion by Salvador Dalí, and "enchanted tree" by David Hockney, a boldly coloured glass labyrinth by Roy Lichtenstein, and a Ferris wheel by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Philip Glass composed the music for Lichtenstein’s labyrinth . Karajan recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic for Hockney's room and Basquiat chose the album Tutu by Miles Davis to accompany the Ferris Wheel ride. 

After decades in storage, the works were restored and new works were commissioned for Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy, which embarked on a global tour in 2023 with funding from Toronto singer Drake. 

This pop-up 3D offset cardstock multiple commemorating Haring’s carousel was produced in an edition of 2000, most of which were said to have been accidentally destroyed immediately after the fair. Estimates are that fewer than 200 copies remain. 

The work can be had for €950, from the Copyright Bookshop, here. 

Rhiannon Alpers | A Thousand Starlings

Rhiannon Alpers

A Thousand Starlings

San Francisco, USA : Gazelle & Goat Press, 2016

20 pp., 5.5 x 7.25”, hardcover

Edition of 30 signed and numbered copies

"The book explores an imagined journey, being carried through the comfort of one’s dreams. A journey guided by a murmuration of a thousand starlings, undulating and wisping through the evening sky, their soft voices calming and cooing as they head into the unknown.

Metaphors abound in this book. The support system of family and friends manifests in the starlings, and the twilight evokes a sense of comfort and stability amidst the unknown. The many threads pulling the dreamer along in this world are the guiding voices that safely and carefully show us our way. When we steer off course they gently nudge us and support us as we explore an unknown route. Murmurations themselves have an astonishing and dreamlike effect. Their immense rhythm and flow symbolizes the thin line between the dream and day.

Much of the symbolism also stems from the author’s rekindled interest in the long tradition of fables, passed on in her new nightly rituals of telling stories to small ears and eager eyes in the low light of the evening. It is in these final hours that our day fades away and our imagination is carried off to many wondrous places.”

- press release