Fiona Banner | Mother & Child Christmas card

Fiona Banner
Mother & Child Christmas card
London, UK: The Vanity Press, 2009
21 x 14.7 cm.
Edition size unknown

Three Christmas Greetings for Joseph Cornell

Two Christmas cards for Joseph Cornell (from John and Yoko, and Carolee Schneemann) 

and George Brecht's short Christmas Play. 

Ruth van Beek | 2017 Holiday Card

Ruth van Beek
2017 Holiday Card (PWP044)
Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2017
5 x 7"
Edition of 200

Yearly Holiday greeting card from Paul+Wendy Projects, with a rubber stamp project by Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber on the envelope.

Need local last minute Xmas gift ideas? Visit http://www.paulandwendyprojects.com for affordable artworks by Dumontier & Farber, Jonathan Monk, David Shrigley, Micah Lexier, Vanessa Maltese, Joy Walker, Masanao Hirayama, Kay Rosen, Marcel Dzama, Roula Partheniou, Derek Sullivan and many others.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: James Hoff

The Blind Man

Ugly Duckling Presse rings in the 100-year anniversary of The Blind Man (the first DADA magazine published in the United States) with a new facsimile of the magazine, which was published in 1917 by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood. While the issues are slim, they pack a sly punch with their gauntlet throwing and trademark DADA wit.

Issue one was published on the opening date of the Society of Independent Artist’s “First Annual Exhibition” and the magazine takes up the “no jury, no prizes” spirit of the exhibition with an editorial policy modelled on the referendum. That said the first issue contained just a few contributors, with writings by Roché and Wood and also Mina Loy.

As we all know, this exhibition is where R. Mutt made his debut and the second issue takes up R. Mutt’s (non)position in the exhibition, defending his work with an editorial and the first publication of Alfred Stiegelitz’s famed photo of “The Fountain” with the caption “The Exhibit Refused by the Independents.” The issues also contains a good deal more, with contributions of prose, poetry and essays by Walter Arensberg, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, Robert Carlton Brown, Frank Crowninshield, Charles Demuth, Marcel Duchamp, Mina Loy, Louise Norton, Francis Picabia, Joseph Stella, Frances Simpson Stevens, and Clara Tice.

The magazine folded after the second issue, a result supposedly determined by a chess match between Roché and Picabia, who had a magazine of his own named 391. As the story goes whoever won the match, got to keep their magazine and, well, Roché lost in 34 moves. The game is detailed in the pages of Duchamp’s one-off RongWrong, which is also included in the UDP box. Other inclusions include Man Ray’s Ridgefield Gazook, Wood’s poster for the Blind Man’s Ball, an introduction by the edition editor Sophie Seita and English translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba.

The Blind Man is printed in an edition of 1,000 and retails for $70 (on sale right now for $60) via Ugly Duckling Presse.


James Hoff is an artist living in New York City. He is the co-founder of Primary Information, a non-profit organization devoted to publishing artists's books.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Emmy Bright

Caitlin Cali
Soothsayer Deck
Providence, RI: Caitlin Cali Studio, 2016
Box and Cards 4 x 7 inches, 34 cards, 6 pp book.
Silkscreen printed cards, book, screenprinted box
Rolling Edition
Price: $60 + shipping

This deck of Soothsaying Cards showcases Caitlin Cali’s exquisite drawing style, wild mind and deft hand work.  Over the last 14 years, she has consistently produced paintings and printed matter that overflow with her perverse joy, magical thinking, deep knowing, and dense imagery created through combinations of private language of characters and symbols.  The Soothsayer Deck is a coherent set of mystical, gorgeous and merciless images.  The booklet offers a gentle guide to doing readings and looking at the work.  This is an affordable, mystical and compact entry point into Caitlin’s larger body of work.  Printed on kraft colored Chipboard in four different colors, each card offers a prophetic image: love orbs, man cats, the shape of a candle, a horde of crows.  Unlike traditional Tarot with it’s hierarchies and archetypes,  this project joins Cali’s particular visual vocabulary of characters with the structure of chance operations and “readings” to make a powerful set of images for self reflection and story telling.   Her style and visible handwork is parallel to some of my favorite folk artists, and earnest in its expression. You can look for answers in her:  blood droplets, mortal wounds, cripples being healed in secret gardens, slash hearts, scar faces, cute babies, wormholes, baby seal eyes, extreme love, sepulcher houses, eye snakes, death crust, hell ladders, heaven ladders, purifying fires, lightening hate, witch curses, god blessings, true glory, and mercilessly ecstatic visions.

You can follow, contact and place orders through Instagram messaging @caitlin.m.cali   https://www.instagram.com/caitlin.m.cali/ or email her at caitlin.m.cali@gmail.com


Emmy Bright is an artist working in print media, performance and writing. She has exhibited and performed recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI, Distillery Gallery in Boston, MA, Ditch Projects in Eugene, OR, and Yve Yang Projects in New York City, NY.  Recent residencies and fellowships include the Haystack Open Studio Residency, Penland School of Crafts winter Residency, the Ox-Bow School of Art Summer Residency and a Studio 2-3 Residency in Richmond, VA.  A project of hers was recently featured in Headmaster Magazine No. 8 (an art magazine for man-lovers), and she is working on an exhibition for Quirk Gallery in Richmond, VA.  She lives and works in Detroit where she is represented by the David Klein Gallery.

Holiday Recommendation Guest Post: Eunice Luk

Music from Shelter Press
Aside from publishing artist books and monographs on contemporary art and poetry, Shelter Press also releases an exquisite selection of experimental music. The French record label and publishing house was founded in 2011 by visual artist and musician, Félicia Atkinson and publisher, Bartholomé Sanson. I am drawn to Shelter Press's curation for intriguing, unexpected narratives and distinctive sounds.

http://shelter-press.org

Eunice Luk is a Canadian visual artist currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Luk publishes artist books and multiples under the imprint, Slow Editions.