Michelle Grabner | The Thing Quarterly, Issue 27

Michelle Grabner

The Thing Quarterly, Issue 27

San Francisco, USA: The Thing Quarterly, 2015

23 x 23 x23 cm., boxed

Edition of 1000

Ken Johnson closed his twenty-four line New York Times review of an exhibition by Chicago-based artist Michelle Grabner with this sentence: 

"If the show were a satire of the artist as a comfortably middle-class tenured professor and soccer mom, it would be funny and possibly illuminating, but it’s not.”

The overt sexism ignited a firestorm of counter-reviews and letters to the editor. Grabner herself responded by posting a link to the review on Facebook, without comment. 

“It was 300 words but it tells us a lot more about the world we live in than it does about Ken Johnson and Michelle Grabner,” she remarked later. 

The following year she responded with this functional size five gingham soccer ball. The ball arrived to subscribers to The Thing Quarterly boxed, accompanied by a pamphlet containing a brief introduction, an interview with Grabner by editor Jonn Herschend, and a reproduction of Joe Fyfe's review of the NYT review in HyperAllergic.

Michael Snow | Questions and Answers

Michael Snow

Questions and Answers

San Francisco, USA: The Thing Quarterly/KADIST, 2016

7" vinyl record

Edition of 250 numbered copies

A 45 rpm single recorded on March 30, 2016 in Toronto.

Curator Joseph del Pesco and artist Euan Macdonald posed fifteen questions to the artist, such as "How does one shape the fortuitous?" and "What is your philosophy of time?". Snow answered with short musical improvisations recorded by Mani Mazinani. The replies to the questions are followed by "an Epilogue, offering reflections on the subjects raised by the questions."

In addition to the hand-numbered copies (on an accompanying card), an additional 250 copies were made available as a free digital download, all of which were consumed within minutes of the email announcement.

Questions and Answers is one of the final projects produced by The Thing Quarterly, before they ceased publishing objects in 2017. The single was released in September of 2016, at the New York Art Book Fair. It quickly sold out. 

The track listing is as follows: 

A1 What Was Your First Thought When You Woke This Morning?

A2 Why Make Films That Only A Few People Will See?

A3 What Moves You?

A4 What's Toronto Like In The First Days Of Spring?

A5 What's Left When You "Take The Spectator Out Of The Illusion"?

A6 Is There Anybody Listening To This Right Now?

A7 What's Frame-By-Frame Truth?

A8 What Are Mysterious Alterations Of Time And Mind?

A9 What Is Your Philosophy Of Time?

A10 Does The Music Start In Your Mind, Your Fingers, Or In The Piano?

B1 Do The White And Black Keys Symbolize Anything To You?

B2 How Does One Shape The Fortuitous?

B3 How Are Waves Visible Registers Of Invisible Forces?

B4 What Is Silence?

B5 What Is The World Coming To?

B6 Epilogue

Pencils

Pencils by Micah Lexier, Roula Partheniou, Jem Maegan, Van Maltese, Kelly Mark, Yoko Ono, Colter Jacobsen, Image Bank, David Shrigley, Jenny Holzer and Buzz Spector. 

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis | The Courier’s Dilemma

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis

The Courier’s Dilemma

San Francisco, USA: The Quarterly Report, 2025

12.6" x 9.7 x 4.4"

Edition size unknown

When we visited Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis’ impressive Pittsburgh studio last year there were two mailboxes hanging on the wall beside the stairs leading up to the loft, one for interesting mail, the other for boring (see below). I suspect it began as an organizing principle and grew into an artwork. 

I might’ve pitched the idea of producing them as a Nothing Else Press edition if we hadn’t just produced this work with them the previous year.

The piece has just been announced as the second object project from The Quarterly Report (a spin off of The Thing Quarterly). The edition consists of two metal mail boxes with hand painted text, along with mounting hardware and key. 

The work evokes two favourites: David Shrigley’s NO JUNK MAIL, published by our mutual friends Paul + Wendy Projects, and Ben Vautier’s The Postman’s Choice postcard (a card with address lines on both sides). 

The Courier’s Dilemma is available from the publisher, here, for $275.00 US.

Anne Walsh | Issue 2

Anne Walsh

Issue 2

San Francisco, USA: The Thing Quarterly, 2008

4” x 6”

Edition size unknown

The second (of thirty-four) issue of The Thing Quarterly is a doorstop, or wedge, by Anne Walsh. Set into the surface of the orange rubber wedge is a fan letter that a very young Walsh wrote to Billie Jean King in 1973, after she had beaten Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match.

It reads: 

Sept 20, 1973

Dear Billie Jean King,

I hope you get this letter. I think you are really great.

My family and I watched you play on tv tonight. We saw you beat Bobby Riggs in 3 sets. WOW. You won! I am really, really excited.

I am not an aspiring tennis player, But you are my inspiration because you are so strong. You are so passionate about equality for girls and women. You won that match for me and for everyone who cares about women's lib.'Thank.ou. You are so great.

Keep on fighting!

David Shrigley | Travel Wallet

David Shrigley
Travel Wallet
San Francisco, USA: The Thing Quarterly, 2013
24 pp., 8 x 7.5", boxed
Edition size unknown


The nineteenth issue of The Thing Quarterly is a travel wallet made from soft, pebbled leather, with the title foil-stamped onto the cover. Inside are four credit card slots and two interior slip pockets, housing a removable 24-page booklet billed as "a meditation on travel, existentialism, and pool splashing", as well as four removable double-sided phrase cards. 

John Baldessari pillow cases

John Baldessari

The Thing Quarterly, Issue 22

San Francisco, USA: The Thing Quarterly, 2014

33 x 25 cm.

Edition size unknown

Issue 22 of The Thing Quarterly consists of two 100% cotton sateen pillowcases featuring an image of a woman clutching a pillow. The black and white image is taken from a Hollywood film still in Baldessari's collection and has been silkscreened on each pillowcase with environmentally-friendly, water-based ink.  The pillowcases are standard-sized and envelope-style, with a thread count of 320. 

The work was intended as an open edition, but The Thing Quarterly folded in 2017, after operating for just under a decade. The edition is unsigned, though the artist signed a few copies which were sent out at random to purchasers. 

For other Thing Quarterly editions see the hashtag below. 

See also: pillows by Michael DuMontier and Neil Farber, Marina Abramovic, Miranda July, Christian Marclay, Bless and Lucas Grogan, here.