The focus of Owens’ essay From Work to Frame, or, Is There Life After “The Death of the Author”? is how artistic production finds its conditions for success within a social universe, and therefore is an acknowledgement of conditions related to production and reception while incorporating an understanding of how authorship in artistic work can be realized. The shift goes, as the title announces, from the work to the frame, and at the same time to a determination of those conditions that make works appear as frames.

From Work to Frame was first published in English and Swedish in 1987 in the catalogue for the exhibition Implosion: A Postmodern Perspective at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. As S*I*G #12, the text is published in English and in its first German translation, alongside a preface by Hannes Loichinger, who is editor of this issue.

The New York gallery American Fine Arts, Co.—whose name today is largely synonymous with that of its gallerist, Colin de Land (1955–2003)—represents a gallery practice in which a decided deviation from conventional models overlaps with successful activities within the framework of the art market. Today, American Fine Arts, Co. and de Land figure as uncontested projection screens for the desire for independence from or bohemian resistance against the dictate of the market.

Texts by Andrea Fraser, Manfred Hermes, Karl Holmqvist & Tobias Kaspar, Isla Leaver-Yap, Jackie McAllister, James Meyer & Christian Philipp Müller, Magnus Schäfer, Axel John Wieder, Phillip Zach; conversation between Colin de Land, Josef Strau, and Stephan Dillemuth; introduction by Hannes Loichinger and Magnus Schäfer.