Simone Forti | Handbook in Motion

Simone Forti

Handbook in Motion

Halifax, Canada: The Press of the Nova Scotia College 

of Art and Design, 1974

143 pp., 22.5 x 17 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Handbook in Motion documents the artist's early conceptual dance work with photographs, drawings, and texts, many of which are handwritten, covering work from the years 1959 – 1973.

It is one of the earlier titles published by the influential NSCAD Press, which also published classic bookworks by Michael Snow, Jenny Holzer, Dan Graham, Steve Reich, Gerhard Richter, and Yvonne Rainer (who credits Forti with being instrumental to the Judson Dance Theater: "Simone was its inspiration and fountainhead. We all owe her.")

After apprenticing with Anna Halprin in the 1950s, Forti went on to work alongside artists and composers such as Nam June Paik,  La Monte Young, Trisha Brown, Charlemagne Palestine, Peter Van Riper, Dan Graham, Yoshi Wada, and Robert Morris. Her other publications include Angel (1978), and Oh Tongue (2003). 

Yesterday she was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in the field of dance from the Venice Biennale, at the age of 87. 

“I didn’t know what the Golden Lion was,” she told the New York Times, “[but] if someone has to take the role and stand there holding it, I am honoured to be the one to do it for the community.”

The first edition of Handbook in Motion sells for between $150 and $200 but the title was reprinted in 2021 and available for a tenth that price. A full scan of the title can be downloaded here, for free.