Athena Tacha | My Adolescent Loves

Athena Tacha

My Adolescent Loves

Oberlin, USA: Self-published, 1976

[8] pp., 14 x 6.5 cm., single leaf folded

Edition of 500

Between 1972 to 2020, the Greek-American artist Athena Tacha produced twenty-seven accordion fold “Pocket Booklet” pamphlets: single sheet productions, often sold in small plastic sleeves. 

The booklets contain intimate autobiographical writings, with titles like My Childhood Garden, My Childhood Home, My Mother: A Psychological Portrait, My Fears, My Night Sagas, and the ongoing series The Process of Aging.

My Adolescent Loves strikes a diaristic tone, describing her pre-sexual, amorous feelings towards celebrities and people in her life.

"Each of her series of little “pocketbooks,” produced since 1972, is printed on a different pastel-colored paper (except Little Pleasures, which is unaccountably bright orange) and accordion-folded into a 5 3/4 by 3 inch-plastic slipcase. Different volumes treat such themes as The Way My Mind Works, My Mother, The Process of Aging, and My Adolescent Loves with absolute candor and bone-dry, sometimes childlike language. They often end with a disarming little twist; from Different Notions of Cleanliness: “As for sweeping, unless you do it very carefully, or with a vacuum (which I am lazy to get out every day for a little bit), I don’t believe much in it. All it does is push the dust around.” I have often found that people who are more accustomed to reading literature and its criticism tend to be bored or perplexed by the naïveté of Tacha’s texts. But that quality is only a whimsical vehicle for conveying serious biological and psychological observations."

-  Ellen H. Johnson, Artforum

Accordion-Fold Artists’ Books

Leporellos by Kiki Smith, Kay Rosen, Nancy Karp, Emmett Williams, Diane Borsato, Raymond Pettibon, Miranda Maher, Robert Morris, Peter E. Clarke, Dave Dyment, Athena Tacha, Dennis Oppenheim, Hansjörg Mayer, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Lucio Fontana. 

Athena Tacha | Little Habits

Athena Tacha

Little Habits

New York City, USA: Self-published, 1980

8 pp., 14 x 6 cm., accordion fold

Edition size unknown

Like many of Athena Tacha's small, affordable publications, Little Habits is an accordion-fold booklet housed in a plastic slipcase.

“Tacha’s accordion-fold pocket books are “meditations on a particular aspect of life, describing ordinary acts and phenomena such as scratching dandruff from the scalp, considering which groceries to buy in the supermarket, or the appearance of wrinkles with age. Tacha’s reflections bring to light the broader implications of these seemingly commonplace events, making allusions to the ecological, sociological, and political impacts of our personal choices and emotions and visa versa. Just as often, Tacha’s reflections stay within the intimate scope of the act or object described and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.”

- Printed Matter

Athena Tacha | Little Habits

Athena Tacha
Little Habits
New York City, USA: Self-published, 1980
8 pp., 14 x 6 cm., accordion fold
Edition size unknown

Small folded booklet in a plastic slipcase, available from Printed Matter, here.

Athena Tacha

This is the last week to see Printed Matter's display of bookworks by Athena Tacha. The exhibition, which opened March 18th, closes Saturday April 19th. The presentation features a comprehensive collection of the artist's publications.

"The focus of Tacha’s practice ranges broadly. She examines abstract geometries, creates intimate narratives, and builds scientific records. The mediums Tacha utilizes are as diverse as her subject matter, and her talents as photographer, sculptor, author, designer and architect are evidenced in the diversity of publications she has produced over the past four decades.
Many of the works featured here are a part of Tacha’s pocket books series and present titles that read like poetry: Little Pleasures, Adolescent Loves, Different Notions of Thriftiness, Life’s Layering, Vulnerability, Tragic Cats. The accounts within each are meditations on a particular aspect of life, describing ordinary acts and phenomena such as scratching dandruff from the scalp, considering which groceries to buy in the supermarket, or the appearance of wrinkles with age. Tacha’s reflections bring to light the broader implications of these seemingly commonplace events, making allusions to the ecological, sociological, and political impacts of our personal choices and emotions and visa versa. Just as often, Tacha’s reflections stay within the intimate scope of the act or object described and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.
In contrast to the psychological self-portrait developed in the pocket book series, Tacha also has produced a physical/physiological self-portrait throughout a series of artists’ books. Gestures, Expressions, The Human Body : An Invisible Ecosystem and Heredity Studies I and II examine the human body. These titles record variations of hand and facial positioning, genetic variation within nuclear families, and the diverse micro-organic fauna that live on and in the human body.
The more architectural, spacial and abstract areas of Tacha’s practice are exemplified in Dictionary of Steps, Spacial Disorientation: Staircases and Ramps, and Ten Projects for Staircases (Tacha’s first book, never before available through Printed Matter)."

- Printed Matter Press release