(a, b, c)
Ulises Carrión
Published by Boabooks, Geneva, 2017, 48 pages, 10.5 × 14.4 cm, English
Price: €15 (Temporarily out of stock)

In (a, b, c) Ulises Carrión presents one if his early linguistic exercises in English, originally handwritten in green ink in 1972. The author observes and explores the structure of the sonnet. He develops fourteen interrelated sequences, which he uses as a key to codify a narrative. The text of each poem follows the schematic order of its title.

Ulises Carrión (1941–1989) is one of the most important figures of Mexican conceptual art. His 1975 manifesto The New Art of Making Books helped defined artist’s books as an autonomous artistic genre. His work includes numerous artist’s books—which was then designated as bookworks—but also video art, sound arts, performance and mail art.

#2017 #boabooks #poetry #ulisescarrion
Tempo rubato
Guy de Cointet
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2012, 98 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 16.5 × 23.5 cm, English / Spanish
Price: €22

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Guy de Cointet: Tempo rubato at Fundación/Colección Jumex, 3 December, 2012–14 February, 2013.

Guy de Cointet’s oeuvre, which includes drawings, publications, performance and film, intersects many of these areas of investigation, being at once performative, conceptual, minimalist, abstract and inspired by historic events, popular culture and mass media.

This publication includes a facsimile of the script for IGLU, a play he wrote in 1977, and its translation to Spanish.

#2012 #guydecointet #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Aktiengesellschaft
Maria Eichhorn
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2007, 303 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 22.3 × 27.5 cm, German / English / Dutch
Price: €30

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft began its life in December 2002, as both a corporation and a work of art. Upon an invitation to participate in Documenta 11, Maria Eichhorn founded an Aktiengesellschaft, or public limited company. As is typical of such entities, the newly created firm was in her own name. It held a 50,000 euros portion of Documenta’s exhibition budget—divided into 50,000 shares of a euro apiece—meeting the minimum requirement of subscribed capital for an Aktiengesellschaft.

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft mimetically uses the structure of the corporation against itself. The artist remains its sole managing board member and initial shareholder; she transferred all shares of the company to itself, to be held in perpetuity. The corporation belongs to itself, or, in Eichhorn’s words, “it ultimately belongs to no one,” and “the concept of property disappears in this case.”

More information can be found on the work here.

#2007 #mariaeichhorn #vanabbemuseum
Aktiengesellschaft
Maria Eichhorn
Published by Edition Metzel, Munich, 2002, 72 pages (b/w ill.), 21 × 29.7 cm, German / English
Price: €15

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft began its life in December 2002, as both a corporation and a work of art. Upon an invitation to participate in Documenta 11, Maria Eichhorn founded an Aktiengesellschaft, or public limited company. As is typical of such entities, the newly created firm was in her own name. It held a 50,000 euros portion of Documenta’s exhibition budget—divided into 50,000 shares of a euro apiece—meeting the minimum requirement of subscribed capital for an Aktiengesellschaft.

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft mimetically uses the structure of the corporation against itself. The artist remains its sole managing board member and initial shareholder; she transferred all shares of the company to itself, to be held in perpetuity. The corporation belongs to itself, or, in Eichhorn’s words, “it ultimately belongs to no one,” and “the concept of property disappears in this case.”

More information can be found on the work here.

#2002 #mariaeichhorn
Rosemarie Trockel
Published by Kunsthalle Basel, Basel & ICA, London, 1988, 71 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 15 × 20.5 cm, English / German
Price: €43 (Out of stock)

Produced on the occasion of Rosemarie Trockel’s exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel & ICA, London in 1988. With texts by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Wilfried Dickhoff and Peter Weibel.

#1988 #icalondon #kunsthallebasel #rosemarietrockel
European contextualising...
Remco Torenbosch
Published by Black Dog Publishing, London, 2013, 255 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 14.8 × 21 cm, English
Price: €25

Produced on the occasion of the Prix de Rome, 2013, this publication is the result of an extensive period of research into the history of the European Flag, opening up intriguing discussion on the changing socio-economics of EU nations, the disappearance of once booming textile industries and the strong individual identities of a union in flux.

Originally conceived for the Council of Europe, the successful design of the flag was later adopted by the European Union in 1985 whilst under the moniker of the European Economic Community. Designed by Arsene Heitz, a French draughtsman at the CoE, and Paul Levy, a Jewish-Belgian Holocaust survivor who worked for many years as the council’s Director of Information, the finalised design was presented to the CoE in 1955 at its headquarters in Strasbourg, Heitz’s hometown.

With contributions by Charles Esche, Mihnea Mircan and Council of Europe Archive.

#2013 #charlesesche #mihneamircan #remcotorenbosch