Section 31
Ian Wilson
Published by Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, 1984, 32 pages, 14 × 21.5 cm, English
Price: €32

Ian Wilson has been exploring the aesthetic potential of spoken language since the late 1960s. His ongoing body of work—beginning with “oral communication” and eventually including his signature Discussions—began in 1968 with the spoken word “time”.

Over the course of the 1970s, his discussions took on a more formal character, and his interests shifted towards ‘The Known and Unknown’, based on Plato’s ‘The Parmenides’. In contrast to a ‘performance’, during a discussion the audience can actively take part in realising the concept of ‘oral communication’. Wilson does not want the discussion to be recorded either on film or audio. Wilson summarises the core of these discussions in a book series entitled ‘section’.

#1984 #ianwilson #kunsthallebern
Discordance / Cohérence
Daniel Buren
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1976, 80 pages (b/w ill.), 21 × 27 cm, English / French
Price: €22 (Out of stock)

“A book by (Un livre de) R.H. Fuchs with the collaboration of (avec la collaboration de) Daniel Buren and with contributions by (avec des contributions de) André Bompard, B.H.D. Buchloh, Douglas Crimp, René Denizot.

All descriptions (photographs+texts+diagrams) here included correspond with works selected by Rudi Fuchs. This selection represents approximately seven percent of the work executed since 1965. Most descriptions are being done here for the first time. All descriptions have been written (or rewritten) especially for this book”

Designed by Walter Nikkels.

#1976 #benjaminhdbuchloh #danielburen #douglascrimp #vanabbemuseum #walternikkels
The Lost Space
Guy Mees
Published by Paraguay Press, Paris, 2019, 26 pages (b/w ill.), 18 × 26.5 cm, English / Flemish / French
Price: €16 (Temporarily out of stock)

Guy Mees used the enigmatic title Lost Space to describe two major bodies of work, distinct in origin and form, and separated by a gap of more than twenty years: the geometric objects and panels covered in lace created in the 1960s, and the works he started producing in the 1980s featuring colour paper cutouts pinned to walls. This publication is dedicated to a lesser-known chapter in this story: the writing process of a short text entitled, likewise, The Lost Space. An ambiguous manifesto for Mees’ work, the text went through a number of revisions, with Mees contributing suggestions, but never authoring it himself. This book reproduces eight extant versions of the text for the first time, in facsimile and typographic transcription. Edited by Lilou Vidal. Designed by Joris Kritis. Limited edition of 350 copies.

Guy Mees (1935–2003) is a Belgian artist whose oeuvre encompasses photographs, videos, sculptures, and fragile works on paper that combine formal rigor with delicacy and a conceptual approach. A leading figure of the Belgian avant-garde, Mees left behind a body of work that transgresses geometric abstraction, Minimalism, Conceptualism, and applied arts.

#2019 #guymees #joriskritis #lilouvidal #paraguaypress
Le Consortium, Dijon
Michael Asher
Published by Le Consortium, Dijon, 1991, 16 colour postcards, 15 × 10.5 cm, French
Price: €20 (Out of stock)

Produced on the occasion of Michael Asher’s exhibition at Le Consortium Dijon, 7 June–27 July, 1991.

The work on show in Dijon depicted the heating systems in the basements of sixteen of the well-known architectural landmarks in a city famous for its tourism. On the walls of the exhibition space Asher exactly reproduced the schematic engineering diagrams of interior axial cuts for the heaters belonging to each of the buildings chosen. Painted in black at the same height as the actual heaters, the diagrams, on a purely formal level, presented eccentric shapes and seemingly abstract designs while expressing vigilant precision and regulated linearity.

A set of color postcards, meant to have been sold in the city at souvenir stores and available for viewing and purchase at the reception desk, completed the exhibition as a whole. The photographs of the heaters-displayed on postcards as if they were historic monuments or scenic views-correlated with the schematic wall drawings, grounding them in the functional reality of furnaces composed of oil burners, water heaters, pressure tanks, gages, pipes, and so on.

#1991 #ephemera #michaelasher
Skizo-Mails
Franco Berardi Bifo
Published by Errant Bodies, Berlin, 2012, 152 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 11.4 × 17.8 cm, English
Price: €10 (Out of stock)

Skizo-Mails is the first issue of the new book series Doormats published by Errant Bodies Press. Doormats seeks to unfold creative perspectives on what the political can be today: from critical appraisals of economic injustices to experimental research and projects on public life, the series aims for new political subjectivity. Doormats supports experimental writing, rants and poetics, reflections and commentary by international voices.

Franco “Bifo” Berardi (born 1948 in Bologna) is a philosopher, cultural theorist and political and media activist.  During the 1980s he contributed to Semiotexte (NY), Chimeree (Paris), Metropoli (Rome) and Musica 80 (Milan). In the 1990s he published Mutazione e Cyberpunk (Genoa, 1993), and more recently: Felix (London, 2008), The Soul at Work (Semiotexte, 2010) and After the Future (AK Press, 2011).

#2012 #errantbodies #francobifoberardi #theory
Pictures of the Real World (In Real Time)
Curated by Robert Nickas
Published by Le Consortium, Dijon, 1994, 72 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 23 × 27 cm, English / French / German
Price: €12 (Out of stock)

Produced on the occasion of the exhibitions Pictures of the Real World (In Real Time) curated by Robert Nickas at The Consortium, Dijon; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York;  Le Capitou, Fréjus; Städtische Galerie, Göppigen; Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milano, presenting On Kawara’s Date paintings in relation to various contemporary photographs.

Featuring the following artists; Dan Graham, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Douglas Huebler, Lee Friedlander, Larry Clark, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Jan Groover, Peter Campus, James Welling, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Barbara Bloom, Louise Lawler, Sam Samore, John Coplans, Barbara Ess, Andres Serrano, David Robbins, Jeanne Dunning, Zoe Leonard, Félix González-Torres, Philip-Lorca Di Corcia, Charles Ray, Robert Barry, Danny Lyon.

#1994 #barbarabloom #charlesray #dangraham #douglashuebler #felixgonzaleztorres #jangroover #louiselawler #onkawara #photography #robertnickas #sherrielevine #zoeleonard