Printed Matter's new location

Printed Matter will reportedly close in August and continue to operate out of a pop-up shop down the street, until their new location, at 231 Eleventh Avenue is ready to open in the fall. Located at the corner of 26th Street, the new space will double the square footage of their current Chelsea location.

Gilbert & George | A Message From the Sculptors

Gilbert & George
A Message From the Sculptors
London, UK: Art For All, 1970
20.3 × 12.6 cm.
Edition of 300

An embossed card with letterpress text, and collaged elements of the artists' make up, tobacco and ash, hair, coat and shirt and breakfast. The booklet also includes five small black & white photographs of the artists' performances and two paragraphs of text:

"Gilbert and George, the sculptors, are walking along a new road. They left their little studio with all the tools and brushes, taking with them only some music, gentle smiles on their faces and the most serious intentions in the world."

and

"And in conclusion, Gilbert and George have a wide range of sculptures for you, singing sculpture, interview sculpture, dancing sculpture, meal sculpture, walking sculpture, nerve sculpture, cafe sculpture, and philosophy sculpture. So do contact us."

In 2010, a copy sold at a Christies auction for £2,500 ($3,848 US), more than twice the high estimate. The title is currently available from Sims Reed for £5,000 ($7,600 US), here.

The work is currently on display at the MoMA in NYC, as part of Gilbert & George: The Early Years, curated by David Platzker. The exhibition runs until September 27, 2015.


"Their whole way of life became a work of art. Every gesture, every piece of writing was intended to elucidate their "living sculpture. Their books/publications A Message From The Sculptors Gilbert & George, To Be With Art Is All We Ask and The Pencil on Paper Descriptive Works are nothing but descriptive appendices of their intentions."

- Germano Celant, Book as Artwork

Written Works: Modernist Thought and Human Experience

Written Works: Modernist Thought and Human Experience, organized by Ana Maria Sapountzis, closes at the MoMA library today. The small exhibition, contained in four vitrines, features books by artists which consist primarily of text, such as memoirs, diaries, letters, and essays. Artists featured include John Cage, Tracey Emin, Paul Gauguin, Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol and others.

Art Metropole closed for Inventory

Every Building In The Sunset Strip

My exhibition, Every Building In The Sunset Strip, which takes an artists' book as its content and form, closes today at 5pm at MKG127.

David Horvitz | How to Shoplift Books

David Horvitz
How to Shoplift Books, Come Rubare Libri
Venice, Italy: Automatic Books, 2013
64 pp, 11 × 17 cm, hard cover
Edition of 100


A users guide in both English and Italian, detailing 80 ways in which one can steal a book.

The National | A Lot of Sorrow Boxset

The National
A Lot of Sorrow Boxset
London, UK: 4AD Records, 2015
9 x 12" vinyl records, boxed
Edition of 1500

On May 5th, 2013, as part of MoMA PS1’s Sunday Sessions, The National performed their three and a half minute song Sorrow for six continuous hours, at the request of Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson. The 9 LP box set on clear vinyl is released today in the UK and mid-July in North America.

Richard Tuttle | Poem in corner No. 1

Richard Tuttle
Poem in corner No. 1
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: ICA, 1991
44 x 21.2 x 40.1 cm.
Edition of 100 signed and numbered copies

A sculpture resembling a kite: a wooden and metal frame becomes support for three banners of paper with offset lithograph text reading,“yellow, bud size and father”.

Available for 980 Euros from here.

John Waters | Car Sick

John Waters
Car Sick
New York City, USA:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015
336 pp., 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2", hardcover
Edition size unknown


A couple of years ago the band Here We Go Magic announced over Twitter: “Just picked up John Waters hitchhiking in the middle of Ohio. No joke. Waters is in the car.” The story was picked up by numerous media outlets and quickly went viral, outing the filmmaker/artist's plans.

The guitarist Michael Bloch later told Pitchfork:

There's a hydro-fracking boom in western Pennsylvania. You can't get a motel room. We had to drive til 4AM, and finally found a Days Inn in eastern Ohio. Getting back on the highway this morning, there was a man at the side of the on-ramp with a sign that read "to the end of Rte 70." Jen [Turner, bassist] wanted to pick him up, but we drove past him. As we passed by, our sound guy said "John Waters." Luke said, "Yep, definitely John Waters." We got off at the next exit and circled back. He was still there. We pulled up, opened the door and asked where he was coming from. "Baltimore," he said. And we said "Get in, sir."

Most drivers who stopped to pick him up did not recognize him, or mistook him for Steve Buscemi. Some offered him money, assuming he was homeless (which he attributes to his running out of moisturizer). But Waters packed plenty of cash and credit cards, a GPS tracking device, a sign that read "I'm not Psycho", and a “fame kit,” in case he needs to use his celebrity to get him out of a trouble. Miscalculating the length of time it would take, he packed too few pairs of underwear, as the plan was to throw them away after wearing them, rather than stop for laundry. 

Before setting out on his Baltimore-to-San Francisco adventure, Waters imagined the best and worst case scenarios, which make up the first two sections of the book. The final recounts his trip, which was not as dangerous as cross-country hitch-hiking might sound.

“I think it’s dangerous to stay home,” he said, “never going out and seeing the world and meeting new and interesting people. Now that’s dangerous.”

Waters, in Toronto this week for Pride events, will speak to a sold-out audience tonight at Ryerson Theatre.

Book Arts Newsletter No.98 July - August 2015

Sarah Bodman's Book Arts Newsletter #98 (July - August 2015) is now available. The issue features National and International Exhibitions, Courses, Conferences, Lectures & Workshops Pages, Opportunities, Book Fairs and Events, Internet News, New Publications, Reports & Reviews Pages and Stop Press!

It can be downloaded from the Bookarts website, here.

Marilyn Minter | Plush

Marilyn Minter
Plush
New York City, USA: Fulton Ryder, 2014
9 x 12 inches
Edition of 500 copies (+10 deluxe)

Minter met Richard Prince via twitter, when he began re-tweeting her posts a few years ago. They later met in person at a party and he introduced her to Fabiola Alondra,  the director of his publishing venture, Fulton Ryder. Alondra proposed a book and Minter was working on a series of "bush pictures" for a magazine project that fell through:

"The idea was to create beautiful images of pubic hair, a subject matter that seems to be disappearing from popular discourse. We asked model’s of all races, all colours to grow out their pubic hair and I got inspired to make photos and paintings from some of those images, and I’m still shooting them."

The word Plush was used in the 19th-century to refer to pubic hair.

Kay Rosen | This Means War...

Kay Rosen
This Means War...
Edinburgh, Scotland: Ingleby Gallery, 2015
25.4 x 33.9 cm (image size); 38.2 x 45.8 cm (paper size)
Edition of 50, signed and numbered

Available to pre-order from the publisher, here, for £600.00 GBP. Orders will be shipped by the end of the month.

Art Basel Opens today

Visit the Art Metropole booth at Art Basel 2015, from June 18th to 21st. They will be launching two new artists’ editions: Sara Cwynar’s cotton tote bag and Francisco López’s 1980-82 audio cassette.
A large selection of artists' books, multiples and editions will also be on display and available for sale.

The booth is located at Hall 1, Magazines Sector, Booth Z25, next to Conversations.

Art Metropole also officially announced the departure of Corinn Gerber as director, yesterday. Read the full post here.

The above photos are over a decade old, from 2002 and 2003, perhaps. 

No Patent Pending, self-made performative media

[Matteo Marangoni, ed]
No Patent Pending, self-made performative media
The Hague, Netherlands, iii editions, 2015
84 pp., 17 x 24 x 1.5 cm., loose leaves, slipcase
Edition of 800 numbered copies


In 1993, the compilers of A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute CD were faced with the dilemma of how to use a recording to honour a composer who preferred random sounds and the living room window left open, to pre-recorded music? Their solution was to divide 23 pieces of music (by Laurie Anderson, Earle Brown, John Cale, Kronos Quartet, Meredith Monk, Yoko Ono, James Tenney, David Tudor, etc.) into 99 tracks and suggest that the listener use the (then-somewhat-new) 'random' feature on their CD players. In all likelihood (especially given the limited audience for such a project) no listener would ever hear the same sequence as another.

The producers of No Patent Pending felt a similar discomfort: "How to convey ephemeral, performative practices based around unique and inventive media within the fixed and standardized format of a book?" Their solution is not dissimilar.

The title is edited by Matteo Marangoni, with contributions from Ewen Chardronnet, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Lars Kynde, Alessandro Ludovico, Jonathan Reus, Joel Ryan & Kristina Andersen, Dieter Vandoren, Anne Wellmer, Godfried-Willem Raes and Yolanda Uriz. It features a collection of theoretical essays, conceptual and poetic exercises, and illustrations. It is presented as a series of cards contained in a cardboard slipcase. Each copy was manually assembled following a procedural score composed by Lars Kynde (see below).

It's available for €25.00 from the publisher, here.

So Multiples

After six years, So Multiples called it quits today, with this announcement:

"Chers lecteurs, chers amis,

Après six ans d’aventure éditoriale, So Multiples s’arrête.

Nous remercions, à ce titre, tous ses collaborateurs et auteurs pour leur participation active à la revue.

Nous espérons que vous avez pris du plaisir à nous suivre et vous remercions de votre fidélité.

D’autres projets nous attendent et contribueront, nous l’espérons, à alimenter le champ de l’édition d’artiste.

Bien à vous,

Océane Delleaux
Fondatrice de www.so-multiples.com"

Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon turns 58 today.