Kenneth Patchen | AFlame and AFun of Walking Faces

Kenneth Patchen
AFlame and AFun of Walking Faces 
New York City, USA: New Directions Books, 1970
87 pp., 5 x 7", hardcover
Edition size unknown


Subtitled Fables and Drawings, the book includes 'How Ostriches Came to Have Throats Long Enough to Get Golf Balls Stuck in the Middle Of ', 'The Evolution of the Hippopotamus', 'He Didn't Know the Son Was Loaded', 'Sure Cure For A Cold', 'Not All Towels Come From Turkey' and others.

Hito Steyerl Wins Inaugural EYE Prize

From Artforum:

"Hito Steyerl has won the first edition of the EYE Prize for artists working in film, reports Hannah Ghorashi at Artnews. The $37,100 prize was established by the EYE Film Institute Netherlands to support artists who work primarily in the medium of film. Steyerl will be presented with the award today in Amsterdam at the EYE Gala.

The 2015 EYE jury consisted of director and artist Chantal Akerman; MoMA’s chief curator for media and performance art, Stuart Comer; EYE CEO Sandra den Hamer; artist and director Isaac Julien; advisor, and art collector Martijn Sanders; producer and screenwriter Olivia Stewart; and screenwriter and director Béla Tarr.

A retrospective of Steyerl’s work is currently on view at Artists Space in New York and she will also be included in a group show at the German Pavilion for the 2015 Venice Biennale."

Conceptual Literature: Writing at the Limits of Writing

Christian Bök has just been awarded an Insight Grant (worth $97,500) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to write a book entitled Conceptual Literature: Writing at the Limits of Writing.

In addition to his two books of experimental poetry (Crystalography and the best-selling Eunioa) Bök served as editor of Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science, and Ground Works: Avante-Garde for Thee.  

Francois Morellet | Untitled, 1991

The Moma Library tumblr has been releasing images from the Steven Leiber archives recently. Follow the site here.

Ben Vautier | Suicide Kit (Kit de suicide)

Ben Vautier
Suicide Kit (Kit de suicide)
Self-published, 1962
9.5 x 37 x 18 cm
Unique object

A prototype for the edition below.

Vautier told Fluxus curator Jon Hendricks "I used two live electric wires: you tie them to your ears and put your feet in a bucket of water, sleeping pills, rope. They were real systems. I never used nails or fish hooks, those were from [George] Maciunas".

Ben Vautier | A Flux Suicide Kit

Ben Vautier
A Flux Suicide Kit
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1967
9 x 12 x 2.5 cm.
Edition size unknown

A seven-compartment plastic box containing various one might use to self-harm: matches, BBs, razor, nails, fish hooks, an electrical plug with frayed cord, etc.