Christian Boltanski | Reconstitution

Christian Boltanski

Reconstitution 

London, UK: Trustees of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1990

32 x 26 cm.

Edition size unknown

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Christian Boltanski: Reconstitution at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, and The Van Abbemuseum, in Eindhoven, this brown cardboard box contains three softcover exhibition catalogues, five reprints of artist’s books, two facsimile letters, a colour poster, colour postcards and other ephemera:

Christian Boltanski: Reconstitution exhibition catalogue, with essay by Lynn Gumpert, 40 pp., with numerous color and black and white illustrations. 

Christian Boltanski 1944-90 catalogue of works, exhibitions and bibliography, 36 pp., with numerous black and white illustrations.

Christian Boltanski: an Interview with Georgia Marsh 48 pp., with five black and white illustrations.

Reconstitution des gestes effectués par Christian Boltanski entre 1948 et 1954 28 pp., with 7 b &w plates

10 Portraits photographiques de Christian Boltanski 1946-1964 24 pp., with 10 black and white plates.

Recherche et presentation de tout ce qui reste de mon enfance 16 pp., with 8 black and white plates.

Inventaire des objets ayant appartenu a une femme des Bois-Colombes 92 pp., with numerous black and white illustrations.

Saynetes Comiques 32 pp., with 22 black and white illustrations.

lettre de demande d'aide

Lettre aux conservateurs de Musee proposant le projet des inventaires

Happy Halloween

Aspen Magazine | The McLuhan Issue (#4)

Aspen Magazine

The McLuhan Issue (#4)

New York City, USA: Roaring Fork Press, 1967

9.5 x 12.5 x .075”

Edition size unknown

Aspen was conceived by former Women’s Wear Daily editor Phyllis Johnson as "the first three-dimensional magazine." Each issue came housed in a customized box or folder filled with materials in a variety of formats, including printed materials, "flexidisc" phonograph records, posters, postcards and reels of super-8 movie film. Each issue had a different editor and designer who took complete control of the periodical. It featured contributions by prolific artists (Peter Blake, Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol), musicians (John Cale, John Lennon, Angus MacLise, Lou Reed), writers (William S. Burroughs, Susan Sontag) and composers (John Cage, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, La Monte Young).

The McLuhan Issue was designed by Quentin Fiore, who had then-recently collaborated with McLuhan on The Medium is the Massage, a book which Fiore had initiated and which went on to become McLuhan's best seller [below]. The issue came in a box illustrated with a diagram of an electrical circuit and text taken from their collaborative work. The contents included several posters, a flexi-disc record by composer Gordon Mumma, an article about a nature trail for the blind and John Cage's Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse). The latter would also later be included in the SMS Portfolio (a publishing project not dissimilar to Aspen) and as a Great Bear Pamphlet, published by the Something Else Press. The advertisements (which include an early Something Else Press newsletter) were held in a magenta folder inscribed with McLuhan’s theory of effective advertising.

The flexi-disc record features the magnetic tape composition "In Memoriam Edgar Varèse” backed with a live recording of “Horn”, a chance composition with the sound of a french horn whose mute has been fitted with a microphone. 

"Quentin Fiore tells me that Aspen Magazine is wild about putting me in one of their boxes.  I am the subject of their next issue, issue number 4, the McLuhan edition.  Corinne will be amused.  The graduate school – I am sure – will not.  This will give the Profs at Toronto University a fit.  I can hear them now.  Pure Commercialism! Undignified!  Not professorial!  Well that’s their look out.

For each issue Aspen’s editors assemble a mix of recordings, posters, essays and whatnot playing on a particular theme.  “Magazine” you know is a very interesting word.  It means a storehouse, a cache, typically for explosives.  This issue is undoubtedly going to result in fireworks.  The last one was on Warhol.  This one’s on me.    Haven’t seen it yet, but I will.  Perhaps next Sunday."

- Marshall McLuhan, 1967

Richard Nonas | Boiling Coffee

Richard Nonas

Boiling Coffee

New York City, USA: Tanam Press, 1980

[166] pp.,  21.5 x 19.5 cm., hardcover

Edition of 70 signed and numbered copies [+5 AP]

The clothbound edition of Richard Nonas’ Boiling Coffee is signed and numbered and includes two laid in original manuscript pages. 

The trade edition was a softcover produced in 1750 copies [see earlier post, here]. 

“A book about working; about slow movement, thin difference, small change. A sequence of collages, text, photographs, drawings.” 

- Umbrella Magazine, November 1980

Art Metropole

A selection of shopping bags from Art Metrople, by Maurizio Nannucci, Yoko Ono, Michael Snow, Jonathan Monk, Ross Sinclair, Richard Prince, Dan Graham and others. Art Metropole celebrates its 52nd anniversary today. 

 

Timm Ulrichs | Dice of Fortune

Timm Ulrichs

Dice of Fortune

Berlin, Germany: Artikel Editionen, 2002

3 x 3 x 3 cm.

Unlimited edition

 

Conceived of in 1965 and published almost forty years later, Timm Ulrichs’ Dice of Fortune is all aces. A kind of inverse of both Dan Graham’s One and Robert Filliou’s ‘one’ die. 

The work consists of a varnished wooden die with each side showing six dots, packaged in a transparent screen printed box and produced in an open edition. 

Joe Brainard | Twelve Postcards

Joe Brainard

Twelve Postcards

Calais, USA: Z Press, 1975

12 x 16.3 cm., loose leaves

Edition size unknown

A printed envelope containing twelve postcards featuring illustrations by Joe Brainard, published as Z Press Postcard Series no. 1.

Available from Granary Books for $225 US, here.