David Shrigley | Don't Ring the Bell

David Shrigley
Don't Ring the Bell
Fitzroy, Australia: Third Drawer Down, 2016
5.8 cm. diameter
Edition size unknown

Following their David Shrigley mugs, air fresheners, tea towels, playing cards and frisbees, earlier this year Third Drawer Down released a functional red metal bike bell emblazoned with the text "Not to be Rung Again Until Jesus Returns". The work is a variation on Shirgley’s 2007 sculpture Bell, below.

Available from the publisher, here, for twenty-five Australian dollars.

Vija Celmins | Amérique

Vija Celmins
Amérique
Olympia, USA: Simmelink/Sukimoto Editions, 2009-10
64.3 x 48.1 x 2.2 cm.
Edition of 22 [+8 AP]

Printed by Doris Simmelink, Amérique is a meticulous re-creation of a nineteenth-century Belgian map that Celmins found in a shop. The work is printed on Hahnemühle Copperplate bright white paper, using a 5-plate, 7-color aquatint with CNC engraving process, with pencil and drypoint additions by the artist to mimic the marked and stained original. The facsimile is housed in an antique-style frame designed by Celmins.

Available here (price on request).

Robert Rauschenberg | Shades

Robert Rauschenberg
Shades
West Islip, USA: Universal Limited Art Editions, 1964
38.1 x 36.5 x 29.5 cm
Edition of 24


Six lithographs printed on Plexiglas panels, five interchangeable, mounted in a slotted aluminum box on optional iron stand designed by the artist, illuminated by a light bulb that blinks or burns steadily.

"Rauschenberg works in a variety of media, often pushing the boundaries of his materials to experiment with new ways of creating art. His prints are no exception: In 1963 he used a broken lithographic stone to make his famous print Accident, and, four years later, Booster—which shows an x–ray photograph of the artist's full body—was the largest handpulled print ever made.

Shades is one of Rauschenberg's earliest forays into bookmaking, and it, too, reinterprets its medium. Instead of paper, the book is constructed from an aluminum frame holding a fixed title page and five movable plates of plexiglass. Rauschenberg lithographed numerous images taken from newspapers and magazines on each panel. When the plates are inserted into the base—in one of six million possible permutations, according to one expert—the work becomes three dimensional and weblike, glowing from the light of a small bulb attached in the back."

- gallery label from Book/Shelf, MoMA, March 26–July 7, 2008

Alice Hutchins | Jewelry Fluxkit

Alice Hutchins
Jewelry Fluxkit
New York City, USA: Fluxus, c1969
7.5 x 6.7 x 5.1 cm.
Edition size unknown


Listed as a do-it-yourself kit in several Fluxus newsletters dating back to 1968, the plastic box contained "springs, bolts, magnets, jingles, hardware parts, etc." While the square size was somewhat more common (and the basis for the later Reflux edition), the kit was also issued in the more standard rectangular box, in various colours.

Geoff McFetridge | Monster Dice

Geoff McFetridge 

Monster Dice

Zurich, Switzerland: Nieves, 2007

13 x 13 x 13 cm.

Edition of 200 signed copies

A boxed, laser-etched oak heartwood cube, with numbered certificate. Monster Dice is no longer available from the publisher, and sells for between $350 and $400 at auction. The similar Bigfoot Dice, from 2014, is available, here. The Monster Dice silkscreened poster is available 'in select stores', according to the Nieves website, here. 

Juliane Foronda | Marked Landmark

Juliane Foronda
Marked Landmark 
Toronto, Canada: Nothing Else Press, 2016
25.4 x 68 cm
Inkjet on archival paper
Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies
$75.00 CDN

Produced for the summer exhibition DIY at MKG127 (which also featured works by Daniel Eatock, Bill Burns, VSVSVS, Roula Partheniou, Joe Scanlan, Dean Baldwin, Michael Dumontier, etc. etc), this colour archival print comes in a cardboard tube the same dimensions as a stack of rolled packing tape.

[note: we're going away for a few days, but orders will be filled early September.]

BOUND: Art Book + Zine Fair

The second annual BOUND: Art Book + Zine Fair takes place this weekend at the Cleveland MOCA. The event "brings together the most creative zinesters, comic creators, photomakers, and independent publishers to share and sell their work. In addition, BOUND will include live music, DJ sets, workshops, and artist talks."

The list of exhibitors includes:

80 Proof Comix (Cleveland, OH)
Aaron Lange & Valerie Temple (Philadelphia, PA)
A Strange Land (Rochester, NY)
ADP Workshop (Pittsburgh, PA)
Alison Scarpulla (Cleveland, OH)
Amalgamated Hoverchair (Copley, OH)
APAMA (Akron, OH)
Ash Fiasco (Cleveland, OH)
Authorized to Work in the US (Brooklyn, NY)
/BL^NT/ zine (Cleveland, OH)
Downfall Arts (Chicago, IL)
Dumm Comics (Cleveland, OH)
Earthman's Press (Cleveland, OH)
Eleanor: A Zine (Mogadore, OH)
Emily Poor (Cleveland, OH)
Evan Fusco (Cleveland, OH)
Fag Enabler (Columbus, OH)
Ghost Pony Press and Abraxas Press (Madison, WI)
Great Moments in Western Civilization (Buffalo, NY)
Guide to Kulchur (Cleveland, OH)
Houseboat Press (Boston, MA)
INSTIGATOR (Brooklyn, NY)
The Itinerant Printer (Buffalo, NY)
IZEN (Athens, OH)
Jerry Birchfield (Cleveland, OH)
Justin Hustle (Cleveland, OH)
Justin Michael Will (Cleveland, OH)
Kent State University/Cleveland Public Library (Kent/Cleveland, OH)
Kirpan Press (Vancouver, WA)
Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry (Cleveland, OH)
Matthew Scott Gualco (Brooklyn, NY)
The Media Luna (Pittsburgh, PA)
Megan Tepper (Brooklyn, NY)
Meowville (Cleveland, OH)
My Idea of Fun (Cleveland, OH)
Mystery Spot Books (St. Paul, MN)
Nathan Melaragno (Cleveland, OH)
NOLA Digital Newspaper Archive (New Orleans, LA)
Nomadic Bookshelf (Cleveland, OH)
PICPUS Press (London, UK)
Poems-for-All (Sacramento, CA)
Same Coin Press (Fairfield, IL)
Shawn Campbell Photography (Akron, OH)
Shiner Comics (Cleveland, OH)
Shquirat (Cleveland, OH)
Soft City  Printing (Brooklyn, NY)
Spaces Corners (Pittsburgh, PA)
Stephen Grebinski (Pittsburgh, PA)
Taylan Turan (St. Louis, MO)
The Tenth Zine (New Orleans, LA)
Very Soft Press (Toledo, OH)
Wykery (Pittsburgh, PA)

For more information, visit the museum website, here.

Arman | Paintbox

Arman
Paintbox
New York City, USA/Tokyo, Japan: Abrams Original Editions/Akira Ikeda Gallery,1970
9 x 53 x 46 cm
Edition of 125 signed and numbered copies

A wooden paint box housing four accumulations in resin (paint tubes, watercolours, brushes and pencils), two silkscreens on plexiglass, an offset lithograph on paper, and an etching on paper. The prints are each signed and numbered and the and resin works are incised with a signature and number. Estimated value: $8000 US.

This Week on Tumblr: Jonathan Monk

Last week: Bruno Munari. This week: artists' books, records and editions by Jonathan Monk:

http://artistsbooksandmultiples.tumblr.com/tagged/jonathan-monk

Antwerp Academy Art Book Fair

Tom Sachs on Frank Ocean collaboration

http://pitchfork.com/news/67699-tom-sachs-explains-frank-oceans-endless-stairway-to-heaven/

New Order | Blue Monday

New Order
Blue Monday
Manchester, UK: Factory Records, 1983
12"
Edition size unknown

The sleeve for New Order's fifth single was created by Factory Records in-house designer Peter Saville and Brett Wickens, the Hamilton-born designer he ran his agency with. Designed to resemble a 5¼" floppy disk, the sleeve does not display either the band's name or the song's title, other than in code. The coloured blocks can be deciphered using a legend printed on the back of the group's full length LP Power, Corruption & Lies. 

“I’d been to see the band in the studio and Stephen [Morris] gave me a floppy disk to take home" said Saville. "I thought it was a beautiful object. At the time, computers were in offices, not art studios. The floppy disc informs the design and the colour coding was from my interest in aesthetics determined by machines. It reflected the hieroglyphic visual language of the machine world. For example, the numbers in your cheque book aren’t really for you, they’re for a machine to read."

Saville rarely ran his designs by the label or even the band, partly as a result of his legendary tardiness. “Where is it? It’s late, it should have been done weeks ago," he recalls being told, "just get it to the fucking printer.”

The printing costs on Blue Monday were notoriously high, due to the use of an elaborate 3-step die-cut process. It has been reported that the costs of producing the single came to £1.10, and it was to sell in stores for £1. Other stories list five pence as the loss per copy sold. The discrepancy is presumably due either to the inexactitude of myth-making, or the company's laissez faire accounting.

Steve Coogan as Factory Records' Tony Wilson in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People remarked "They're gonna sell fuck all, so it doesn't matter." Based on the band's previous singles (all of which had failed to crack the Top 30) and the seven-and-a-half minute run-time, no one at the label predicted a hit. The song went on to become the  top-selling 12" single of all time, losing the label substantial money.

"I am so bored with this story," Saville says now. "I don’t know if [it's] true. I sent the cover straight to the printers because everyone was in a hurry. I doubt the printers even gave a quote for Factory to respond to. The band had handicapped themselves as no one was likely to play it on the radio because it was seven minutes long. Ironically it sold a lot, and with an expensive sleeve."

The 1988 and 1995 versions were packaged in more conventional sleeves. "[They] banged out a cheaper version," Saville said in 2013.  "I don't know how many thousands were sold the original way, or whether Factory were charged the full price for something they didn't get, which would be very Factory."


Hear the song performed by the Orkestra Obsolete, using only instruments available in 1933 (the theremin, musical saw, harmonium and prepared piano), here.

Edda Renouf | Lines and Non-Lines

Edda Renouf
Lines and Non-Lines
Lapp Princess Press, 1977
24 pp., 6 x 6", staple-bound
Edition of 2000

Renouf describes the images in this book with three simple lines on the title page: From One To Many, From Short To Long and Vice Versa.

James Rosenquist | Drawings while waiting for an idea

James Rosenquist
Drawings while waiting for an idea
New York City, USA: Lapp Princess Press, 1979
[24] pp., 16 x 16 cm., saddle-stitched
Edition of 2000

Robert Mangold | Six arcs

Robert Mangold
Six Arcs
New York City, USA: Lapp Princess Press, 1978
[25] pp., 16 x 16 cm., side-stitching
Edition of 2000

The eleventh booklet in the Lapp Princess Press series is an artists' book consisting of six line drawings that originate and terminate in various locations on the page as described on the front cover:

1) Corner to Corner
2) Corner to Square
3) Middle to Corner
4) Corner to Middle
5) Square to Corner
6)  Corner to Corner

Christopher Wool turns 61 today

Franz Erhard Walther | Double Transformation

Franz Erhard Walther
Double Transformation
Toronto, Canada: The Power Plant, 2016
60 x 80"
Edition of 100 [+27 AP]


In conjunction with Walther's excellent Call to Action exhibition, the artist produced a limited edition  organic cotton blanket, exclusively for The Power Plant. The form of the blanket itself is drawn from one of Walther’s Werkzeichnungen (Work Drawings), originally created in 1969.

It's available for $700 CDN, here.

Note: given that memberships to the Power Plant range from $30 to $100 and the members' discount for this edition is $150, it would be foolish not to join prior to purchase. Details here.

Call to Action continues until September 5th.