The first instalment of The Social Life of the Record, a series of original texts by musicians, fans, critics, collectors, dealers, label owners etc.—reflecting on recording, releasing, listening to, filing, flipping and DJing records today.

Addressing questions parallel to those asked by Paraguay Press’s established The Social Life of the Book, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere plays off its format and inaugurates the new series The Social Life of the Record. It is published as a component of the exhibition of the same name held at castillo/corrales December 2012–January 2013, and extends the project’s triangulation of the identity of New Zealand art and music. London-based artist Paul Elliman evokes relationships between sound and geography; Philadelphia label owner Tom Lax chronicles his involvement with New Zealand music as a fan from afar; New Zealand critic Jon Bywater reflects on vinyl records as a means to ‘physical thinking’; and french collectors Jedrzej Zagorski, François-Xavier Hubert, Sandra Reignoux, Jean-Louis Cayron and Fred Paquet contribute photographs of some of their New Zealand possessions; crossing Hans Christian Andersen with Wilkie Collins.

The third in The Social Life of the Book series, Paraguay Press’s collection of commissioned texts dealing with books, and how they engage with the circulation of ideas and the agency of social situations. A short piece of fiction by the Amsterdam-based graphic designer and writer Louis Lüthi, Infant A follows famous book artist Ulises Carrión as he walks on the High Line in Chelsea, discussing two books simply titled “A.”

Designed by Will Holder.

The fifth in The Social Life of the Book series, Paraguay Press’s collection of commissioned texts dealing with books, and how they engage with the circulation of ideas and the agency of social situations. Die Toilette is an assemblage of text fragments taken from different books by LA-based writer Chris Kraus, conceived and annotated by artists and writers Jon Bywater, Louise Menzies and Marnie Slater. By reading through Kraus’s texts looking for traces of New Zealand, where she grew up, the three Kiwis question the representation of the distant; how it is embodied by characters, situations, language, and in the writing/reading dynamics Kraus creates. The beach, affection and love relationships, the role of the city, intense relations with wildlife–all this and more is at stake in this amazing cut-up.

Designed by Will Holder.

Will Holder’s pamphlet is the sixth in The Social Life of the Book series, Paraguay Press’s collection of commissioned texts dealing with books, and how they engage with the circulation of ideas and the agency of social situations. This edition contains a section of the catalogue of publications from english conceptual artist Helen Chadwick’s personal library, reproduced by Will Holder… for Single Mothers. The library was acquired in 2006 and is held by The Henry Moore Institute Archive, Leeds, UK.

Designed by Will Holder.

Will Holder’s pamphlet is the sixth in The Social Life of the Book series, Paraguay Press’s collection of commissioned texts dealing with books, and how they engage with the circulation of ideas and the agency of social situations. This edition contains a section of the catalogue of publications from english conceptual artist Helen Chadwick’s personal library, reproduced by Will Holder… for Single Mothers. The library was acquired in 2006 and is held by The Henry Moore Institute Archive, Leeds, UK.

Designed by Will Holder.

Artist Oscar Tuazon’s pamphlet is the first in The Social Life of the Book series, Paraguay Press’s collection of commissioned texts dealing with books, and how they engage with the circulation of ideas and the agency of social situations. “I was raised making books” recalls Tuazon at the beginning of this essay, that addresses the very oft-announced death of the book at the same time as it envisions the conditions of its rebirth. This unflinching reflection on how publishing has changed, also develops as a speculation on the artist’s own approach to sculpture.

Designed by Will Holder.