Group Material | Freedom

Group Material
Freedom
New York City, USA: Self-published, 1995
dimensions vary
Edition size unknown

An exhibition catalogue housed in a bag containing a bumper sticker, a letter opener and a chip-bag clip, all emblazoned with the show's logo - a wallet with the word FREEDOM printed on it.

Available from Printed Matter, here, for $45.00 US.

Founding member Tim Rollins died Wednesday, of natural causes, at the age of 62. Read a brief obituary at Artnews, here.

Ulay & Abramovic / Relation / Works 3 Performances

Marina Abramovic / Ulay
Relation / Works 3 Performances
Innsbruck, Austria: Galerie Krinzinger, 1978
[46 pp.], 16.5 x 24.5 cm., softcover
Edition of 1200

Early bookwork by Ulay & Abramovic featuring photo documentation of three performance works from the Relation series: "Relation in Space, Relation in Movement, and Relation in Time. The title also includes an index of performances, films, video tapes, bibliography, biography and excerpts from a dialogue between the artists and Heide Grundmann.

Artists as/with Santa Claus

Christmas cards from Wim Delvoye

Fiona Banner | Mother & Child Christmas card

Fiona Banner
Mother & Child Christmas card
London, UK: The Vanity Press, 2009
21 x 14.7 cm.
Edition size unknown

Three Christmas Greetings for Joseph Cornell

Two Christmas cards for Joseph Cornell (from John and Yoko, and Carolee Schneemann) 

and George Brecht's short Christmas Play. 

Ruth van Beek | 2017 Holiday Card

Ruth van Beek
2017 Holiday Card (PWP044)
Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2017
5 x 7"
Edition of 200

Yearly Holiday greeting card from Paul+Wendy Projects, with a rubber stamp project by Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber on the envelope.

Need local last minute Xmas gift ideas? Visit http://www.paulandwendyprojects.com for affordable artworks by Dumontier & Farber, Jonathan Monk, David Shrigley, Micah Lexier, Vanessa Maltese, Joy Walker, Masanao Hirayama, Kay Rosen, Marcel Dzama, Roula Partheniou, Derek Sullivan and many others.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: James Hoff

The Blind Man

Ugly Duckling Presse rings in the 100-year anniversary of The Blind Man (the first DADA magazine published in the United States) with a new facsimile of the magazine, which was published in 1917 by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood. While the issues are slim, they pack a sly punch with their gauntlet throwing and trademark DADA wit.

Issue one was published on the opening date of the Society of Independent Artist’s “First Annual Exhibition” and the magazine takes up the “no jury, no prizes” spirit of the exhibition with an editorial policy modelled on the referendum. That said the first issue contained just a few contributors, with writings by Roché and Wood and also Mina Loy.

As we all know, this exhibition is where R. Mutt made his debut and the second issue takes up R. Mutt’s (non)position in the exhibition, defending his work with an editorial and the first publication of Alfred Stiegelitz’s famed photo of “The Fountain” with the caption “The Exhibit Refused by the Independents.” The issues also contains a good deal more, with contributions of prose, poetry and essays by Walter Arensberg, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, Robert Carlton Brown, Frank Crowninshield, Charles Demuth, Marcel Duchamp, Mina Loy, Louise Norton, Francis Picabia, Joseph Stella, Frances Simpson Stevens, and Clara Tice.

The magazine folded after the second issue, a result supposedly determined by a chess match between Roché and Picabia, who had a magazine of his own named 391. As the story goes whoever won the match, got to keep their magazine and, well, Roché lost in 34 moves. The game is detailed in the pages of Duchamp’s one-off RongWrong, which is also included in the UDP box. Other inclusions include Man Ray’s Ridgefield Gazook, Wood’s poster for the Blind Man’s Ball, an introduction by the edition editor Sophie Seita and English translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba.

The Blind Man is printed in an edition of 1,000 and retails for $70 (on sale right now for $60) via Ugly Duckling Presse.


James Hoff is an artist living in New York City. He is the co-founder of Primary Information, a non-profit organization devoted to publishing artists's books.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Emmy Bright

Caitlin Cali
Soothsayer Deck
Providence, RI: Caitlin Cali Studio, 2016
Box and Cards 4 x 7 inches, 34 cards, 6 pp book.
Silkscreen printed cards, book, screenprinted box
Rolling Edition
Price: $60 + shipping

This deck of Soothsaying Cards showcases Caitlin Cali’s exquisite drawing style, wild mind and deft hand work.  Over the last 14 years, she has consistently produced paintings and printed matter that overflow with her perverse joy, magical thinking, deep knowing, and dense imagery created through combinations of private language of characters and symbols.  The Soothsayer Deck is a coherent set of mystical, gorgeous and merciless images.  The booklet offers a gentle guide to doing readings and looking at the work.  This is an affordable, mystical and compact entry point into Caitlin’s larger body of work.  Printed on kraft colored Chipboard in four different colors, each card offers a prophetic image: love orbs, man cats, the shape of a candle, a horde of crows.  Unlike traditional Tarot with it’s hierarchies and archetypes,  this project joins Cali’s particular visual vocabulary of characters with the structure of chance operations and “readings” to make a powerful set of images for self reflection and story telling.   Her style and visible handwork is parallel to some of my favorite folk artists, and earnest in its expression. You can look for answers in her:  blood droplets, mortal wounds, cripples being healed in secret gardens, slash hearts, scar faces, cute babies, wormholes, baby seal eyes, extreme love, sepulcher houses, eye snakes, death crust, hell ladders, heaven ladders, purifying fires, lightening hate, witch curses, god blessings, true glory, and mercilessly ecstatic visions.

You can follow, contact and place orders through Instagram messaging @caitlin.m.cali   https://www.instagram.com/caitlin.m.cali/ or email her at caitlin.m.cali@gmail.com


Emmy Bright is an artist working in print media, performance and writing. She has exhibited and performed recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI, Distillery Gallery in Boston, MA, Ditch Projects in Eugene, OR, and Yve Yang Projects in New York City, NY.  Recent residencies and fellowships include the Haystack Open Studio Residency, Penland School of Crafts winter Residency, the Ox-Bow School of Art Summer Residency and a Studio 2-3 Residency in Richmond, VA.  A project of hers was recently featured in Headmaster Magazine No. 8 (an art magazine for man-lovers), and she is working on an exhibition for Quirk Gallery in Richmond, VA.  She lives and works in Detroit where she is represented by the David Klein Gallery.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Eunice Luk

Music from Shelter Press
Aside from publishing artist books and monographs on contemporary art and poetry, Shelter Press also releases an exquisite selection of experimental music. The French record label and publishing house was founded in 2011 by visual artist and musician, Félicia Atkinson and publisher, Bartholomé Sanson. I am drawn to Shelter Press's curation for intriguing, unexpected narratives and distinctive sounds.

http://shelter-press.org

Eunice Luk is a Canadian visual artist currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Luk publishes artist books and multiples under the imprint, Slow Editions.

L.A. Art Book Fair Cancelled

"Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I regret to announce that Printed Matter's 2018 LA Art Book Fair has been cancelled due to the unavailability of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, the Fair's venue of the last five years, and the tragic and unexpected passing of our friend and Fair Curator Shannon Michael Cane.

Over the years, the LA Art Book Fair has grown to become one of the art publishing world's largest gatherings—a community-driven celebration of innovation and creativity, as well as a rich educational forum for engaging with all facets of art book publishing. We are greatly disappointed that we are unable to mount the Fair in 2018.

The LA Art Book Fair will definitely return in 2019 with renewed energy. Thank you for your understanding and support, and we hope to see you at our NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in the fall.

Sincerely,

Max Schumann
Executive Director"

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: John Cook

Jonathan Monk is always surprising. Somehow combining strategies of appropriation with those of conceptual art. The work is also affectionate. He loves Sol Lewitt. Turns out he also loves African fabrics, his house and studio being no stranger to the strong colours and patterns of this wax resist cloth. The fact that Franz West used it, as does Yinka  Shonibare is not a problem. Quite the opposite. Originality is another thing Monk gently undermines. Besides, they are beautiful.

Monk has produced two very interesting works with "Three Star Press". The first is a small edition book of 24 fabric ‎samples on which are screened Lewitt isometric drawings of geometric forms. The second is an edition of large monoprints on the same fabrics of groupings of Lewitt 's isometric drawings. A few copies of each remain available from Three Star Press.

Wax resist cloth ‎has an extraordinary story which Monk is tapping in to. Grossly oversimplified : Dutch traders found they could sell Indonesian batik in west Africa. Then Dutch fabric makers decided to make the cloth for sale in Africa, skipping Indonesia, appropriating the look of batik. African traders started making the cloth themselves, resembling and adding to the bold colours and patterns of its origins.  More recently Chinese manufacturers have actively copied African designs and manufacturers labels using industrial printing methods, selling the cloth to the African diaspora in places like Paris. Monk found his many times appropriated fabric in Paris.

John Cook is an architect in practice and teacher of Architecture ‎at Carleton University. He occasionally plays hookey at lunchtime to visit the National Gallery's extraordinary collection of artist books and multiples. He has been interested in multiples and works which were intended to circulate outside galleries since childhood. More recently Dave Dyment convinced him that includes books. 

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Wendy Gomoll

Wearable Editions

Floriography, or the language behind flowers, dates back to Victorian times.  Certain varieties, their colours, or the manner in which they are arranged send silent, coded messages. Similar to the wearing of particular clothes or logos to convey to others, without language, loyalty to bands, political parties or teams.

Karen Azoulay’s YES/NO/MAYBE Scarf, created in collaboration with M-82, employs the form of the knitted soccer scarf along with the coded messages of flowers. Instead of revealing the wearer’s favourite team, the arrangement of the scarf wordlessly broadcasts their frame of mind: the red carnation means YES, the yellow NO, and the striped flower MAYBE. Produced in an edition of 25 for $100, it’s the perfect edition for those who prefer subliminal messages to speech.


December 2017 saw the return of Art Metropole’s popular Gifts by Artists event. United under the title Every. Day. Objects., the exhibition and sale is comprised of editions from 29 artists. Beth Stuart’s Macaroni Necklace is an elegant, geometric pendant from afar revealed closer up to be a macaroni noodle cast in sterling silver, strung on a chain. This playful, tongue-in-cheek piece of jewelry evokes grade school crafts made threading pasta shapes on string.


The necklace, in an unsigned, unnumbered edition of 19 (with one artist proof) is accompanied by a text by the artist and available through Art Metropole for $85.

Wendy Gomoll is an archivist with a background in photography, and the co-publisher of Paul + Wendy Projects, which publishes artists' books, editions and multiples.

Michael Snow

Happy Birthday to Michael Snow, who turns 88 today.

Holiday Recommendations Guest Post: Michelle Schultz

Cindy Baker
Lipstick Bullets
Handmade lipstick in found bullet casings
9mm or .45 caliber
$20

Everyone I know is getting Lipstick Bullets in their stockings this year - Cindy Baker’s artist edition of handmade lipsticks in found bullet casings, with a choice of 9mm or .45 caliber and available in 21 shades of pink, red, blue, green and purple.

Cindy Baker began collecting lipsticks and bullets, interested in their visual similarity, yet representing opposite ends of the gender socialization spectrum. In further research, she found that the histories of lipsticks and bullets were more entwined that she ever could have imagined:

“Lipstick factories making bullets. Bullet factories making lipsticks. Factories that produce both lipsticks and bullets which shift during the war to producing only bullets. Factories that produce bullets during the war which shift to producing lipsticks after the war. People pretending to make lipsticks in order to covertly make bullets. Lipstick tubes recycled into bullet casings. Lipstick sold wrapped in paper to save brass for bullet casings. Used bullet casings saved during the war for makeshift lipstick cases. Unused bullet casings factory-crimped into lipstick cases. Bullet factory workers encouraged to wear lipstick. Free lipstick provided by cosmetics companies to bullet factory workers. Creation of demand for lipstick by newly-out-in-the-workforce women. Creation of demand for lipstick by women whose men have returned home and taken over their jobs. Bullet-shaped lipstick swivel tubes. Lipstick-shaped bullets.”

Lipstick Bullets represent an opportunity to put a bullet to your lips while considering their complicated history.

Michelle Schultz is the Director of dc3 Art Projects in Edmonton, Canada and the newly-founded Bookshop, a shop within the gallery dedicated to visual arts publications. Bookshop focuses on national and international artist books, magazines and editions, and hosts book launches, readings and events.

Micah Adams | Roosevelt/Mountie Pin

Micah Adams
Roosevelt/Mountie Pin
Toronto, Canada: Self-published, 2017
3.5 cm x 1 cm 0.5 cm.
Open Edition

The head of a Roosevelt Dime (Franklin) and body of Canadian Mountie, both cut directly from coins are merged for this hand made pin.

Available for $200 at the Untitled Art Fair in Miami this weekend, from MKG127 (booth E12), alongside several of other Adam's wearable works.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Robert Rebotti

Vincenzo Agnetti
Obsoleto
Milan/Viareggio, Italy: Archivio Vincenzo Agnetti/Edizioni Cinquemarzo, 2017
188 pp., 14 x 20 cm., softcover
New Edition of 200

Edited by Giuseppe Calandriello and Daniele Poletti, this new edition features the original cover artwork by Enrico Castellani, and essays by Germana Agnetti, Cecilia Bello Minciacchi, and Bruno Corà. The new edition also includes the text by Corrado Costa, Guida del viaggiatore immobile.

Available for € 20.00.



Vincenzo Agnetti
Obsoleto
Milan, Italy: Vanni Scheiwiller, 1968
177 pp., 18 x 12,5 cm., softcover
Edition of 1000 numbered copies

In conjunction with the book, Scheiwiller published Guida del viaggiatore immobile. A proposito di Obsoleto, romanzo di Vincenzo Agnetti, by Corrado Costa, Milano, 1968, 14 pp., 21 x 21 cm., excerpt from «Malebolge», n. 5, Edition of 500 numbered.

«In 1968 [Agnetti] inaugurated Scheiwiller’s “Denarratori” series with his novel Obsoleto (Obsolete). The cover is by Enrico Castellani, almost sealing the intellectual and project-related partnership at the basis of Azimuth. Obsoleto has its roots in the years from 1963 to 1967 and aims to recover what had fallen into disuse and disappeared: in this sense it acts as a link between the two key phases of his life. What is more, the circular path of the narrative, the frequent use of purely graphic solutions, and the illegible pages at the end due to the filing of the lead composition by the artist himself, mark the start of reflection on language that goes beyond criticism and epistemology to enter the realm of art in a strictly conceptual sense. Just as it is impossible to separate Agnetti’s life from his artistic production from this point on, so it would also be contrived to distinguish between Agnetti the writer, Agnetti the painter, Agnetti the sculptor and Agnetti the critic. We are now faced with the “man and artist”, about whom Agnetti wrote in 1967 (Intorno alla [Around], in the book on Piero Manzoni published by Scheiwiller), where the different dimensions of criticism and artistic creativity merge to form an extraordinary singularity.» – excerpt from When I Saw Myself I wasn't There, A biography of Vincenzo Agnetti, by Germana Agnetti, Archivio Vincenzo Agnetti (http://www.vincenzoagnetti.com/abiography.html)

Further Information:
http://www.diaforia.org (Series of the new edition)
https://www.facebook.com/Diaforia-157773254268728/ (Series of the new edition)
http://www.cinquemarzo.com (Publisher of the new edition)
http://www.vincenzoagnetti.com (Archivio Vincenzo Agnetti)
http://www.fondazioneenricocastellani.it (Fondazione Enrico Castellani)
http://panizzi.comune.re.it/Sezione.jsp?idSezione=563 (Archivio Corrado Costa – Biblioteca Panizzi)


Robert Rebotti is a graphic designer with an intense interest in gnoseology, philosophy and history of science, epistemology and relational design practices. Visit his website here and his tumblr page here.