Zero Mass: The Art of Eric Orr.

Eric Orr, James Lee Byars, Thomas McEvilley

Zero Mass: The art of Eric Orr

Lund, Sweden: Propexus, 1990

320 pp., 28 x 29.5 x 8.5 cm., hardcover

Edition of 1000

One of the more unusual books in my collection, this monograph/artist book hybrid on/by Eric Orr, is housed in a styrofoam lined cardboard box, alongside a handmade multiple by James Lee Byars. The project was conceived when Orr and Byars traveled to Egypt with critic Thomas McEvilley, in early 1989. 

Published on the occasion of Orr's exhibition at Anders Tornberg Gallery in Lund from October 27th to November 21st, 1990, the book is designed by Gert Fors, John Melin, and Anders Tornberg, 

The book is bound in an anodized blue steel cover, and features extensive images and text, many written collaboratively between Orr and Byars. 

There are many physical interventions in the volume, including pages torn by the artists, inserted handmade paper  by Yoshio Ikezaki made using kozo fibers and powdered mummy's skull, and "The Matter of O” where Orr has stamped a ring of his own blood in the style of a coffee cup stain.

The book is accompanied by a handmade ball of fired clay by James Lee Byars, titled "The Sphere of Generosity.”

Almost thirty-five years old, the book is still available for only $125. I can’t imagine it cost much less to produce. Plus, I suspect the Byars multiple without the book would sell for more than that. Strongly recommended. Get your copy at Printed Matter, here. 

Tomas Schmit | Das Gute Duenken

Tomas Schmit

Das Gute Duenken

Berlin, Germany: Self-published, 1970

[272] pp, 2.5 x 13.9 x 15 cm., softcoveer

Edition of 410 

An artist book in which Schmit provides an anthology of language games, drawings and concrete poetry.  According to the archive ran by the late artist’s estate, the title includes "149 drawings (16 whole page, 7 coloured with red pen, and 114 tiny), 6 images, 10 glued-in-snippets, 2 bookmarks and (at least) 1 surprise”.

Alexis Smith | Alone

Alexis Smith

Alone

Los Angeles, USA: Self-published, 

[32] pp., 7.5 x 6.9 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

An artist book in which Alexis Smith used sixteen black and white illustrations of herself and household objects to illustrate Edgar Allen Poe's short poem “Alone”:

From childhood’s hour I have not been 

As others were—I have not seen 

As others saw—I could not bring 

My passions from a common spring— 

From the same source I have not taken 

My sorrow—I could not awaken 

My heart to joy at the same tone— 

And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone— 

Then—in my childhood—in the dawn 

Of a most stormy life—was drawn 

From ev’ry depth of good and ill 

The mystery which binds me still— 

From the torrent, or the fountain— 

From the red cliff of the mountain— 

From the sun that ’round me roll’d 

In its autumn tint of gold— 

From the lightning in the sky 

As it pass’d me flying by— 

From the thunder, and the storm— 

And the cloud that took the form 

(When the rest of Heaven was blue) 

Of a demon in my view—

Kristján Gudmundsson | Punktar

Kristján Gudmundsson

Punktar 

Reykjavik, Iceland/Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Silver Press, 1972

12 pp., 18 x 15 cm., softcover

Edition of 300 signed and numbered copies

At an Instant Coffee event years and years ago, curator Christina Ritchie told a story about a Canadian visiting Iceland for the first time. Upon learning where he was from, the cab driver who picked him up from the airport wanted to discuss the merits of Margaret Atwood. The cabbie then asked him what brought him to Iceland, and he sheepishly replied that he had come because of the writings of Halldor Laxness. 

Despite winning the Nobel Peace prize for literature in 1955, the author was pretty obscure at this point (The New Yorker published a story last year titled The Rediscovery of Halldor Laxness). He had become a socialist in America from "watching the starving unemployed in the parks”, alienating many readers and journalists. 

The tourist thought it unlikely that even his seemingly literate cab driver would be aware of him. “I’ll take you to his house,” the driver said. 

This story struck a chord with me as I had just finished reading his epic novel Independent People. It’s a miserable tale of a sheep farmer and his put-upon wife’s battle for survival, and it’s a difficult read. It’s also brilliant. 

For his self-published 1972 artist book, Kristján Gudmundsson photographed and enlarged punctuation from poems by Laxness - three periods. He considered them “enlarged silences”. 

The work reminds me Fiona Banner’s Full Stop drawings: large lead drawings of round and oval shapes, which were later made three dimensional as public art works and this boxed multiple. 

Nancy Holt | Time Outs

Nancy Holt

Time Outs 

Rochester, USA: Visual Studies Workshop, 1985

64 pp., 28 x 23 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

“In this book, Holt, an internationally known sculptor and video-filmmaker emerges as a longtime football fan. Photographs of football games, shot off the television screen, are accompanied by texts consisting of TV commentary and interviews with the players.” 

- Visual Studies Workshop

Bedwyr Williams | Basta

Bedwyr Williams
Basta
Wales, UK: Wales Arts International, 2005
[60] pp., 23.4 x 15.8 cm., softcover
Edition of 2000


I just got off a Zoom meeting with a friend who is helping to start a new residency program in Toronto, and asked Roula and I to share our related experiences with her. My sole preparation for the meeting was locating this book on the shelf. 

The opening page text is the most succinct and honest take on the residency experience: 

"Artists in residence smell, they fill their spaces with special teas, comfy mules, Olbus Oil and other knick knacks. 

They get ill, they misunderstand the heating system in their lodgings.1 

They haven't really got enough clothes with them. They don't have a car and are usually damp. 

Also you must go out for a drink with them sometime. 

THEY NEVER REALLY DO WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD."

During a residency at the Banff Centre, I became entirely spoiled because the staff cleaned the rooms bi-weekly, and the resident's food was prepared three times daily (with an additional self-serve snack bar space that was open 24/7). The only thing you had to do yourself was your laundry. So - even though there was a convenient laundry room within the residence building - I found myself really resenting having to do this one, single, simple chore. I drove to Calgary and bought more shirts. 

I was able to do so because of a generous uncle in the city who had loaned me his second car for the six-week duration. But it was clear that Williams' observation that most residents were without a getaway vehicle is both true and impactful.2

Unsurprisingly, Basta features a chapter on 'Laundry', as well as 'Personal Space', 'Jogging' and 'Venice the Menace'. The work was produced when Williams was invited to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale, in 2005. His work became about the experience of living in the city for three months - the disorientation, the general culture shock, the misunderstandings, the social anxieties, the overly helpful suggestions from friends at home insisting on various places that he simply must visit ("It would have been more useful if they had told me where not to go"), pets, etc. etc. 

The slim bookwork is a diary of sorts and its title, Basta, is from the Italian word for "Enough". 

We met Bedwyr, after traveling off the beaten track of the other venues to see his exhibition, which was a highlight of that year's Biennale. He was animated and amusing, much like his work, which - almost twenty years later - still examines the idiosyncrasies of the art world, pricking at pomposity. 

The exhibition Bedwyr Williams: Older Artist at Phillida Reid in London closes this Saturday, May 27th. The show features lightbox drawings with captions such as: "Quiet Art People Communicating via the Medium of Trouser" and "Artists Who Everyone Says Are Lovely Don’t Like You." Frieze reviewed the show yesterday, which can be read here. 

Despite being produced in an edition of two-thousand copies, and originally selling for three pounds, Basta is now scarce and sells on Amazon, here, for $140.00. 

1. I only half-paid attention to the instructions involving the cottage heater during orientation on my first day in residence at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Northern Scotland, thinking to myself "but it's June". I turned the heat on every single evening in the three months that I was there. 

2. The Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence program recognizes this dilemma and a bicycle is made available for each of the summer residents. It's in the contract. 

Micah Lexier | Book Bag Drawings

Micah Lexier 

Book Bag Drawings

Zürich, Switzerland: Nieves, 2022

20 pp., 20 x 14 cm., staple-bound

Edition of a 100 numbered copies

 

Book Bag Drawings is a series of 18 unique sculptures that Lexier made in 2015. Each sculpture, which started as a found canvas tote bag, was altered with the addition of a pencil line, a strip of fabric sewn to the bag and some stray threads.

The title involves many of Lexier's ongoing concerns (artist-designed book bags, alteration, permutation, etc.) but I most enjoy seeing the cross-pollination of influence with his partner Guy Anderson (who produces work under the moniker GuyGuyGuy). 

The title is available for $8.00 US, at Printed Matter, here. 

Dave Dyment | When They Go Hello We Go Hi

Dave Dyment

When They Go Hello We Go Hi

Sackville, Canada: Self-published, 2022

6 x 6 x 6" (boxed), 100' (scroll)

Edition of 3

A hundred foot photographic scroll consisting of a daisy-chain of clasped hands. The work opens with the famous image of Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis Presley (basically a drug deal in the White House) and ends with Donald Trump and Nixon shaking hands and embracing. The title is mondegreen from a Michelle Obama speech about civility, here turned into the most basic of instructions. 

The work is the centrepiece to the exhibition HELLO HELLO, which also includes text works, a sound piece and three paintings. The show continues at MKG127 until April 16th. 

Michael Snow | High School

Michael Snow

High School

Toronto, Canada: Impulse Editions, 1979
[44] pp.,  28 x 22.5 cm., spiral-bound
Edition of 2000


A faux-facsimile of the artist's high school note book, complete with doodles, drawings and short texts in the artist's handwriting. 

Produced in an edition of 2000 by Impulse Magazine (in cooperation with The Isaacs Gallery), one hundred of which were signed and numbered and include a signed print. 

DD: The book presents itself as though it could actually be a straight facsimile - like Scraps For Soldiers - of your own high school notebooks, the way that Konig Books reprinted George Brecht’s notebooks from the time when he was a student in John Cage’s class at the New School for Social Research. But you soon realize that these were not drawings that you made in high school. You’ve mentioned the pun in the title, did you consider these drawings and doodles you might make while stoned? 

MS: In the old days, I don’t know how far back now, I used to smoke dope occasionally. Before playing music, and also socially, it was pretty common.  And for some reason – and with other people around – I would do these kinds of drawings and it seemed an interesting subject for a book. And when I was in school I did doodle in my notebooks.