Adelaide Cioni | Catalogue of Things I’ve Touched

Adelaide Cioni

Catalogue of Things I’ve Touched

Roma, Italy: Edizioni MAXXI, 2025

320 pp., 10.5 x 17 cm., softcover

Edition of 300 numbered copies

Released in December of last year, this bilingual artist book (English and Italian) was produced in an edition of three-hundred numbered copies, thirty-five of which contain an ‘original feature’ by the artist.

"Catalogue of Things I’ve Touched is an artist’s book conceived and created by Adelaide Cioni, inviting the reader to enter into her creative process. Entirely made of scans, the book offers a unique perspective on the artist’s relationship with fabric: notes, sketches, drawings and personal annotations, combined with scraps of fabric and canvas, come to life on the page, giving rise to ever-changing shapes and combinations. A short introductory text explains the structure of the editorial project and, page after page, the artist’s visual world takes shape: ‘shades and textures of wool, sketches painted on fabric, maquettes, unused costume pieces (…), the designs and sketches that lie behind it all.’”

- publisher’s blurb

Martin Creed | Work No. 2609

Martin Creed

Work No. 2609

London, UK: Tate, 2015,

21 x 15.3 x 21.5 cm.

Edition of 50

Every two years, an artist represented in the Tate collection is invited to become the Tate Members "commissioned artist", as a way of recognizing and celebrating the support Tate Members provide to the four Tate galleries. Martin Creed accepted the Tate Members commission for 2015-17. To coincide with this, the artist produced this limited edition piece. Each work is created using twenty-eight chosen acrylic colours, hand thrown on Perspex. 

Work No. 2609 is produced in an edition of 50, each of which is unique.

“The main problem is that life is difficult, I’m just trying to make my life better. In the case of colours, it makes me happy to look at these colours. Anything you can do to make your life better is really worth trying to do.”

- Martin Creed

Mark Gonzales | High Tech Poetry

Mark Gonzales

High Tech Poetry

Columbus, USA: Contingency Publishing, 2002

100 pp., 5 x 6”, softcover

Edition size unknown

High Tech Poetry brings together the artist and skateboarder's art and poetry, with black-and-white drawings covering pages that open along perforations to reveal poetry and sketches. Irreverent poems address everything from capitalism to the plight of man, while cartoonish sketches set the visual tone for the volume. The 2002 book accompanies Gonzales's first public reading of his work at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

"1968 was a turbulent year in America - assassinations, race riots, Vietnam - it seemed as if the world was on the edge of extinction. Amid all the chaos, somewhere in the vast concrete wonderland of Los Angeles, a child was born. The middle child between an older Michael and younger Angie, Mark Andrew Gonzales was here.

Driven by his brother, Mark's neighbourhood reputation quickly grew. Tackle football on concrete, bikes, whatever —little Mark was crazy enough to do just about anything. Somewhere amongst all this, skateboarding popped up. He quickly consumed everything he could have this new "hobby." Unable to afford skate magazines, he studied the images in the ones at the local library. The photos in Skateboarder at the time showed pools and parks. Being that he lacked funds for skateparks, he passed the time mimicking the vert skating he saw in the magazines out on the streets by his house. Thus, Mark's brand of "street" skating was born. Strictly out of necessity and curiosity, a new way of looking at skateboarding's urban playground had arrived.

Mark was never much for school. He quickly made his focus skateboarding and the streets, envisioning, finding, and eventually making up the things that are now standard procedure. Somewhere along the line Mark became a legend. At 17 "The Gonz" was rolling. When the limelight got too much for him, he split to NYC to become a poet, artist, writer, and actor. All of the shit Mark attempted he did just like he skated —his way. He got back into skateboarding in 1992 after realizing that although the other shit was great, only skating could make him complete.

Functionally retarded is how I describe him. He can't order a pizza, but he'll tell you all about Napoleon or some other freak. Funny guy, he once tipped his tax auditor. And he's the biggest spender I've ever met. Money means nothing to him (especially mine). Where is he going with all of this? Who knows. But guaranteed we will all try to bite it when he gets there.” 

- Jake Phelps

Christo | Wrapped Book

 

Christo

Wrapped Book 

New York City, USA: Abrams Original Editions, 1973 

30.5 x 28.6 x 3.5 cm.

Edition of 100 [+10 AP] signed and numbered copies

Handmade by the artist, this edition consists of a book Christo wrapped in canvas with twine. It was released in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies, as well as ten artist proofs with roman numerals I to X. 

According the Edition Schellmann catalogue raisonne, the work was created to help fund the publication of the book Christo by David Bourdon, published by Harry N. Abrams, New York.

Not to be confused with Wrapped Book Modern Art, from 1978, which was also created to fund a publication with Abrams books [see earlier post, here]. 

Takehisa Kosugi | Events

Takehisa Kosugi

Events

New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1964

18 pp., 2.6 x 11.9 x 10 cm., loose leaves

Edition size unknown

After witnessing a performance at Tokyo’s Sōgetsu Art Center, composer Toshi Ichiyanagi sent scores and recordings made by Kosugi to George Maciunas, just prior to his founding of Fluxus. Originally intended as a "complete works" collection (which could be added to as new scores were created) the collection was first advertised in Film Culture magazine in the fall of 1963 and released early the next year. 

It was packaged in a modest white, black or clear plastic box, with variations on Maciunas' name plate design for the artist, often a square graphic on a rectangular box. 

It would be the only Kosugi work published by Fluxus, though other projects appeared in Fluxus newspapers and in the collective Fluxus 1 and Fluxkit boxes. 

Two scores from the box had previously been published in the Fluxus Preview Review [below, bottom].

Events was originally announced in Film Culture No. 30 [below], where it was listed with a price of $2.00. 

"Kosugi's contribution to Fluxus 1 was a graphic realization of Theatre Music (1963), in the form of a rectangle of cardstock bearing a spiral of moving feet (by other accounts, the imprint of a shoe) together with the instruction "Keep walking intently." It is one is a series of event scores cre-ated by Kosugi, including Organic Music (1962), which focuses on the per-former's breathing (instruments are optional) and emphasizes duration and the recognition of how sound is heard within and through the body, and Events, a Fluxus box containing a set of eighteen instructions. Kosugi's scores redefined the notion of music, directing performers and audience toward a phenomenological reengagement with the physicality of the world and themselves. Like Ichiyanagi's Music for Piano No. 4 (1960), with its instruction to "Use sustained sound(s) and silence(s) only," Kosugi's pieces involve the body as an instrument, and listening becomes a form of perception.”

- Charles Merewether

Susan Hiller | Monument

Susan Hiller

Monument

Birmingham, Ikon Gallery, 1981

16 pp.,, 21 x 15 cm., staple-bound

Edition of 750 

Published in co-operation with A Space, Toronto, this rare exhibition catalogue documents Monument,  an installation of forty-one c-type photographs of memorial plaques in Postman’s Park in London, with a twenty-minute audio piece, and a park bench to sit on while listening. 

Each plaque (mostly from 1850 to 1990) commemorates an ordinary man, woman or child who died while performing an act of heroism. For example: 

‘Elizabeth Boxall/Aged 17 of Bethnal Green/ Who Died of Injuries Received/In Trying to Save/ A Child/From a Runaway Horse/June 20 1888’. 

The audio tape plays Hiller's spoken stream of consciousness reaction to the memorials, commenting on themes of heroism, death, memory and representation. The booklet features the texts (in English and French) from the tape, an essay by Tim Guest and artist’s notes. 

herman de vries

herman de vries was born on this day in 1931.