BOOKS

So good at taking the everyday object and making it fun to look at, absorbing to consider, hypnotized by its ordinariness that you, the viewer are responsible for taking into the stratosphere. The duo began this series Polyurethane Objects in 1982, sculpting and carving readymade replicas of the objects that passed through their studio. The plates are sequenced by Mr. Fischli, and evoke a funny poetry of the mundane. You can flip through this book, or really sit and consider each page. Either way, you'll see it like new each time. 

This profoundly great exhibition catalog from Plötzlich diese Übersicht  (Suddenly This Overview) (1981) represents the first major collaboration between artists Fischli & Weiss. It's a spectacular book, satisfying in the way many of the works are, and, we suspect, the way the exhibition was. Plates of their miniature, unfired clay sculptures, that have insanely straightforward captions like "Marco Polo shows the Italians spaghetti, brought back from China, for the first time" and "Lois Lane drinks coffee with Clark Kent and doesn't sense that he's Superman" and "Travelling Hedgehog." Fourth edition of 2000.  

Established by the Parisian gallery castillo/corrales (FR) as a way to explore further the varied practices of the persons with whom they work, Paraguay Press's titles are published in small editions and often defy the expectation of what an artist book, monograph, or essay should be. The organizers work closely with the authors, sometimes in conjunction with exhibitions, sometimes as wholly separate entities that stand alone as works that take print forms.

Direct from Paraguay:
"...a co-operatively run, independent art publishing company, managed by the group of artists, writers and curators behind castillo/corrales and section 7 books...to reclaim control of the means of creation, production and distribution of the books in which their work appear...all depart from an understanding of the space of the book, considered not as a medium of documentation nor a vector of promotion, but as an act of translation and the extension of artistic, critical and curatorial thinking into a graphic, mobile, democratic and durable form."

The first in an on-going series, The Social Life... is a publication of original texts by writers, artists, publishers, designers, and booksellers, focused on each's relationship to books. This fourth installment is by the critic and historian Avigail Moss. Each installment is comprised of a saddle-stitched signature; the entire 12-volume series will be hand-bound into a 192-page edition. For subscription information, please visit castillo/corrales. Edition of 1000. Design by Will Holder.

Established by the Parisian gallery castillo/corrales (FR) as a way to explore further the varied practices of the persons with whom they work, Paraguay Press's titles are published in small editions and often defy the expectation of what an artist book, monograph, or essay should be. The organizers work closely with the authors, sometimes in conjunction with exhibitions, sometimes as wholly separate entities that stand alone as works that take print forms.

Direct from Paraguay:
"...a co-operatively run, independent art publishing company, managed by the group of artists, writers and curators behind castillo/corrales and section 7 books...to reclaim control of the means of creation, production and distribution of the books in which their work appear...all depart from an understanding of the space of the book, considered not as a medium of documentation nor a vector of promotion, but as an act of translation and the extension of artistic, critical and curatorial thinking into a graphic, mobile, democratic and durable form."

It makes sense that Louis Luthi would use the framework of a fictionalized conversation between his protagonist and the figure of Ulises Carrion (Mexican writer, expatriated to The Netherlands) to examine the uses, meanings, and significance of the letter "a;" further down the rabbit-hole lies Warhol's a: a novel, as counterpoint. As a designer he is known for investigations of language and their influences on visual representations, but it's his deft zig-zagging, a kind of exuberance in figuring it all out that makes it work. Edition of 1000. Design by Will Holder.

Film in print. From the celebrated director Owen Land (nee George Landow) (1944-2011), American filmmaker. Irreverent, intellectual, dangerous. Designed by Kaisa Lassinaro.

Commissioned by Kunstverein on the occasion of its first anniversary and the artist's exhibition. Solakov (Sofia, BG) has handwritten comments in apparently empty spaces, at weird levels that require movement and seeking on the part of the viewer. The catalogue functions as key to the physical presentation, but gives any reader a different way "in"; an imagined space, at a different time. Edition of 100. 

Morgan Fisher (CA) is a filmmaker and visual artist. His body of work has dismantled the process and artifice of filmmaking, even as it further presents avenues for critical dialogue around the avant-garde and conceptual histories of visual representation. His concerns have followed the changing trajectory of culture, as the medium shifts, and as new forms of language and expression become prominent. But always with a logic behind the exposition - whether through self-imposed (or not) rules, the uses of technology, and the limits of the vehicle. There is perhaps no filmmaker that better elucidates the imperative of medium as content and content as medium. But with such a sense of irascible pleasure, too. No tone of pedantry, only a kind of joy one gets from a set of instructions well given and gladly followed.

For further exposition, and insight into style, see Yale Union's (Portland, OR) program Andersen & Fisher (strictly on the filmic works of Fisher and Thom Andersen).

Writings is Fisher's work from 1975 to the present, on his own films, paintings, the work of others (Carl Andre, Andy Warhol, Blinky Palermo, Ad Reinhardt, Edgar G. Ulmer, Alfred Hitchcock), transcripts, and narrations. With a highly detailed bibliography 1969-2012 and biography 1974-present. 

Excuse the Wiki quote right out the gate, but "If a book such as this can be said to have charm, it lies in the fact that here is a book without one single redeeming merit." (New York Times) is pretty much perfection and had to be used.

In his inimitable style, filmmaker Kenneth Anger documents the highly disputed facts of, but not the salaciousness of, Hollywood up to the 1950s. The scandals, affairs, and decadence of that weird world and its denizens, and its impact on the greater culture. Super pulpy and totally rubbernecky, it was originally published in French in 1959 by J.J. Pauvert as Hollywood Babylone. It was published in the U.S. in 1965 by Associated Professional Services, banned ten days later and not republished until 1975 by Rolling Stone's Straight Arrow Press and distributed by Simon and Schuster. Later editions used a censored version of the Jayne Mansfield cover (no nipple). Full sized or pocketbook, both are great.

Design by Tony Lane and Kenneth Anger. Typset in Korinna. Used hardcover.

With Sabeth Buchmann, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Kim West. Published after several major exhibitions by the artist, it includes over 50 plates, and essays that highlight differing aspects and interpretations of her practice. The installation artist is known for a firm reading of both object and location, which can help in turn contextualize space. In English, French, German. Edition of 1200. 

Karl Nawrot is originally from France, now resides in Seoul, Korea. Trained in graphic design with an abiding interest in typography and type experiments, but displays the habits of an illustrator. He grapples with the conventional tools and uses of his trade, in both the physical and conceptual sense. By building 3D models, maquettes, paper monuments, anything really, he builds new models for language. Imagination as communicator and storyteller.

Mr. Nawrot often builds his own tools and models; in this case, stencil discs that act as a mechanism for design abstraction, and a cheap option for record sleeve designs. This book shows the beginning and the end. It's hard to say what's a scan, what's a photo, and what's printed. Edition of 500. 

Made by Scanlan for his 2009 exhibition at castillo/corrales, the artist has re-conceived formative economic texts by Thorstein Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter, Milton Friedman, and Edward Said as a kind of epic poem. The original essays range from anti-capitalist analyses to colonialism to the advent of American big business, newly contextualized by Scanlan to address instead the concerns of artists and the state of creative production now. By making these small, significant alterations, Scanlan shifts points—what would it mean to discuss contemporary culture in purely economic terms, think of "markets" as neighbors, or the artist as entrepreneur? A fresh, lyrical approach to subject matter that's often stubbornly pushed to wayside. Edition of 500. 

Willem Oorebeek (NL), artist, whose work is based in the myriad techniques associated with the printing process. Multiplicity, seriality, and reproduction are some of the recurring themes emphasized. Image and language are brought together as comparative tools and as combined forms as a way of revitalizing the nature of representation, in both figure and symbol. Monolith +++ acts as the catalogue from his 2008 exhibition (Lisbon, PT), with text by Wouter Davidts and Camiel van Winkel.

Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) was an artist, poet, and gardner. His work often emphasized the uses of language, applied through the practices of typography, philosophy, and concrete poetry. Wild Hawthorne Press (his publishing imprint) and Little Sparta (the garden he created with Sue Finlay) are the most well-known of long-term works. His preference for neoclassical themes and references can feel exhilaratingly anachronistic, but his deeply physical sensibilities place the works directly in the temporal world. Finlay found a way to ask the "big questions"—what is nature? what is culture?—and in the asking, needed no answers.

All original writings by Alec Finlay, Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Michael Charlesworth, Marjorie Perloff, Kenneth Goldsmith, Stephen Scobie. Made in conjunction with the exhibition Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Selection of Printed Works (2010-11) (Marfa Book Co. Gallery, Marfa, TX). Design by Flint Jamison.

Nakako Hayashi makes a very personal-feeling print piece. Wanting the chance to present the individuals and work that really interested her, Here and There addresses travel and fashion and art and the places they meet. Stories, interviews, and photos, all beautifully, unexpectedly presented. Small moments that contain big ideas in a radical format. Japanese with English translations. 

Takashi Homma, Susan Cianciolo, Kei Takemura, Ryoko Aoki, Takehito Koganezawa, Pascale Gatzen, Elein Fleiss, Aoi Nagae, Yukinori Maeda, Suiren Higashino, Erika Kobayashi, Cerda Steainer & Jorg Lenzlinger. Ima (here) Koko (there), not as oppositional structure, but an accepted one. Hayashi asked friends to contribute writing—to think about the practice, its malleable meaning day to day, its meaning as the connective thread of friendship for people around the world. Designed by Kazunari Hattori, Mina Tabei.

There is a very good Wiki page dedicated to German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann here. It makes a series of good, clear observations that describe his work well. 

The next in this artist's book series offers a chaotic compendium of movie stills, photojournalism, ads, amateur photos, pornography, art, scientific imagery, archival imagery, found photographs and more. Feldmann’s touch is in the sequencing. Sometimes its stories, sometimes only associations. Narratives are broken then fused, but there’s always the palpable energy of our times. 

G.P.O. = General Post Office of Great Britian
G.P-O = Genesis P-Orridge 

The case: In 1975, Genesis mails two postcards to friends/fellow artists. The cards exemplified he/r practice of collage and mail art. The cards in question contained images of pornography and the Queen. Scotland Yard confiscated the cards, and the G.P.O. lodged an indecency prosecution against he/r. Thus began a legal battle, a fantastic public discourse on the nature of art, and a durational performance work that embodies many of the artistic issues P-Orridge and others were grappling with at the time. The ephemera (correspondence, legal documents, articles, trial issuances, more mail art) was originally compiled into a 1976 publication by Ecart, and is reproduced here by Primary Information. Edition of 1000. 

There is a very good Wiki page dedicated to German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann here. It makes a series of good, clear observations that describe his work well. 

Number 5 in Feldmann's on-going series of Bilde (Picture) books. Found images, placed deliberately to create associations and fissures. So interesting, well-done, emotional, and precise. As startling and sense-making as ever. 

Based on the plot of Murders at the Rue Morgue (1841) by Edgar Allen Poe, Garamond takes on the first detective story every recorded. This contemporary account is set in Antwerp, Belgium, and is split into three languages: Dutch (Flemish), French, and English. The reader's challenge is to understand and interpret.

(Text below from New Documents)

Some years ago, Will Holder and Alex Waterman proposed to Robert Ashley that musicians and non-musicians might produce new versions of his operas, by way of typographical scores. The bulk of this book is a result of that proposal: scores for Dust (1998) and Celestial Excursions (2003). These operas' characters have, until now, been solely produced by and are the stories exchanged between Ashley and his "band" (singers Sam Ashley, Joan La Barbara, Thomas Buckner, and Jacqueline Humbert); in landscapes (technological, imaginary, acoustic, organisational, sonic, ocular) produced by "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Tom Hamilton, David Moodey, Cas Boumans, and Mimi Johnson—the result of a 30-year relationship. As such, any "scores" were written for this intimate readership. It hadn't been considered that any one outside this "band" might produce this work.

The scores for Dust and Celestial Excursions are preceded by a selection of Ashley's work, from 1963 to 2008, drawing attention to the varying relations between instruction and score, and the tones of instructional address. Working with these scores gave us a better sense of how each one produces a specific mode of decision-making, telling us what to put on the pages of the scores, for any reader who follows.

Yes, But Is It Edible? is the fourth in a series of publications produced with or by Will Holder and Alex Waterman that address a musicological perspective on scoring speech and the role of printed matter in collective forms of reading and writing: Agape (Miguel Abreu Gallery, 2007); Between Thought and Sound (The Kitchen, 2008); and The Tiger's Mind (with Beatrice Gibson; Sternberg Press, 2012).

Co-presented with the Western Front, Vancouver. Edition of 2000.

It's one of those books that holds much more than you might think, as the compactness of it fools you. Great re-prints of images even on the newsprint pages. It makes you think a little of Ways of Seeing (John Berger). Made in conjunction with the exhibition New Gravity (Overduin & Co., September-October 2014), organized by Eli Diner and Olivian Cha. Essays by Heinrich von Kliest, Diner, Angie Keefer, Cha. Artists in the show: Frank Benson, Judith Hopf, Angie Keefer, Kitty Kraus, Mahony, Oliver Payne, Chadwick Rantanen.

The only comprehensive look at the legendary filmmaker's works. George Kuchar (1942-2011) was one of those directors that had an extraordinary memory for film history, the formalities, banalities, inanities, toiletries, specialties, and especially the ladies. He loved the ladies. He used that knowledge to make films that both subverted and celebrated the form.

A known eccentric, he was also a genius; the ways he approached storytelling and why he wanted to tell those stories, all came from a deeply personal place. Many-layered, and complex in a way that defies all expectations —even within an experimental genre—Kuchar's process could also be looked at as very straightforward. He had an idea, and set about making it happen with whatever means were available. 

This book contains detailed notes on his huge repertoire, but also the really interesting stuff, like personal letters, photos, recommendation letters (you WISH someone would write one like this for you), and much more. It's a great tribute to a man that touched so many students, filmmakers, and artists, but hasn't really been given his due until now.

(Since F de C can be a bit murky in terms of information and is perpetually in flux, we'd say visit their page to get a direct line (HI ALIN)

This reader covers the fashion and art worlds from a cult perspective and its associative mediums (photography, design, music, critical theory and no doubt more angles in the future). Interviews and essays are presented in the relaxed fashion of realpolitik, it's printed down and dirty in Indonesia in a great size for pulling out while on the train and sticking it in your pocket when you get off. It begs to be read, for content—Cosmic Wonder, Margiela, why fashion is boring and style is subjective—for pleasure, for honesty, for an approach that feels right, now.

F de C Reader 3: Ma—
XXXXXXXXXXX

Dexter Sinister (New York, NY) (David Reinfurt, Stuart Bailey) is a sometime bookshop and sometime maker of projects that explore the connectivities between print, object, design, and the ethics and impulses of making. More to the point, it's about the uses of language, its presentation, its value, manipulation, failures and glory.

The catalog made for the exhibition of the same name at The Queens Museum of Art (2010) (Queens, NY), organized by Larissa Harris. 272 pgs; 8.5" x 6".

Multidisciplinary artist Chris Evans lives and works in London, UK. With Penelope Curtis, Marina Vishmidt, Tirdad Zolghadr. Ostensibly a survey of the artist's work, with expository essays and further detail around the circumstantial thinking behind specific pieces. 

lighght

(1965)

Aram Saroyan's minimalist and concrete poems, lots of them, are collected here in a pretty comprehensive way, after their bits and pieces publications have gone out of print. The above poem was blasted by noted jerk/terrible person Jesse Helms after winning an NEA award of $500. Like many of his works, the poem draws attention on multiple levels—the letters themselves, how they are arranged, what the "word" means and what its disruption implies, the ephemerality of its meaning, and our own minds eye that assigns it a connotation even when it's wrong.