Gerald Ferguson | Selected Works

Gerald Ferguson

Selected Works

Halifax, Canada: Anna Leonoewens Gallery/Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, 1974

14 pp., 8vo., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

From a twelve-day exhibition held in March of 1974, this slim publication documents work from 1969 to 1973. Ferguson, who arrived in Halifax in 1969, and taught at NSCAD until 2006, was one of the preeminent Canadian conceptual artists, and a primary force behind the rise of the school's influence. 

Available on Ebay, for $330 US, here. 

Linda Neaman | Foot Facts

Linda Neaman

Foot Facts

Buffalo, USA: Hallwells, 1983

[18] pp., 22 x 14 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

Top Stories was a prose periodical featuring experimental writing by women authors and artists. The series included staple-bound booklets by Jenny Holzer, Kathy Acker, Laurie Anderson, Pati Hill, Mary Kelly, Cookie Mueller, and others. 

The series is published by Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, New York, an artist-run centre founded by Charles Clough, Robert Longo, Diane Bertolo, Nancy Dwyer, Larry Lundy, Cindy Sherman and Michael Zwack in 1974. 

The fifth issue (of a total of 29 publications) presents an analysis of how women’s feet have been objectified and tortured over the years. Neaman's writings are illustrated with images of high heels, self-defence instructions, and reflexology charts.

Foot Facts is Neaman's second publication, after Sex & Monsters (also published by Hallwells, in 1980). Her third book, Dead Stuff, was published almost thirty years later, in 2012.

Foot Facts is available from Printed Matter, for $30 US, here. 

Ken Friedman | Cleanliness Flux Kit

Ken Friedman
Cleanliness Flux Kit
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1969
10 x 12 x 2.3 cm.
Edition size unknown


Conceived in 1966 and produced the following year, the Cleanliness Flux Kit features soap papers, sanding devices and other things pertaining to cleaning. The seven-compartment box features an offset label designed by George Maciunas (below) who described it as "a steam box with head sticking out...".

For another example of the work, see earlier post, here.

George Maciunas
Mechanical for Cleanliness Flux Kit
c. 1968
19.5 x 28 cm.
unique


Cut-and-pasted gelatin silver print on paper with transfer type and ink.

Rubber Stamps Volume 1 #10

JH Kocman [Aart van Barneveld, ed]
Rubber Stamps Volume 1 #10 
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Stempelplaats, 1978.
23.5 x 16.5 cm.
Edition size unknown

The tenth issue of the monthly rubber stamp art periodical is focused on the work of JH Kocman, and includes a biography, listings of exhibitions, stamp techniques, stamp activity as well as a chronological list of all stamps the artist ever made, from 1970 - 1978. The edition includes a blue rubber stamp print of the final stamp by the artist, which reads 'Sorry, I make stamps never more! JHK, 1978'.

Yoko Ono | Peace is Power Pencils

Yoko Ono

Peace is Power Pencils

New York City, USA: Museum of Modern Art, 2019

7.25" (each pencil)

Edition size unknown

A gift-shop multiple to coincide with the MoMA's commission of Ono's Peace is Power installation last year (see below). The pencils read "Think Peace", "Act Piece", "Spread Peace", "Imagine Peace" and "Peace is Power". 

"Yoko Ono wanted a space that was soothing and calming; she chose the third floor Loggia. Like a lot of her previous work, she dealt with the theme of peace, in this case her slogan "Peace is power." From the minute I went to meet her in her apartment, she said, "I know what I want to do. I want an affirmation that peace is power." We started from there and she developed a wallpaper that looks like the sky and ottomans that look like fallen clouds. The fabric she used for the furniture says "yes, yes, yes" in her handwriting. The phrase “Peace is power” repeats on the windows in 24 different languages Ono selected. It was not an easy phrase to translate because peace and power don't have the same meaning in all different cultures."

- commissioning curator Yasmil Raymond

MoMA Sale

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is currently offering several of their titles at up to 75% off, including books on Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, Walid Raad, Bjork, Louise Lawler, Elaine Sturtevant, Dieter Roth, and many others. A Gilbert and George vinyl record is also part of the sale. 

Visit their website, here, for details. 

Sol Lewitt | Nine Pyramids on a Nine Part Grid

Sol Lewitt 

Nine Pyramids on a Nine Part Grid

New York City, USA: Tanglewood Press, 1991

33 x 73.7 x 73.7 cm.

Edition of 15 [+ 6 AP] signed and numbered copies

Valued at approximately nine thousand dollars, the work consists of painted cast polyurethane resin pyramids screwed into a  Formica base which is signed and numbered in ink on the underside.