This publication brings together extensive material from Hamlet, mise-en-scène presented at Portikus, along with recently restored as well as never-published stills, drawings, and writings by American filmmaker and artist Jack Smith, related to his film Hamlet in the Rented World (A Fragment) (1970–73).

Hamlet, mise-en-scène, directed by Mark von Schlegell, was an adaptation that retold Shakespeare’s most abused tragedy while channeling the ghost of Jack Smith. The two-night rendition of Hamlet was performed by members of Städelschule’s Pure Fiction seminar, presented here alongside a rare selection of works by Smith, both from private collections and from the Jack Smith Archive.

Texts By Sylvère Lotringer, Birte Löschenkohl, Sophie von Olfers, Laura Preston, Juliane Rebentisch, Mark von Schlegell.

This publication documents an exhibition that took place in 2010 in the window of Antiquariat Buchholz. Michael Krebber presented here in collaboration with Sebastian Höckelmann works by Antonius Höckelmann and Jack Smith. The book contains a new text by Michael Krebber in German and English.

This publication contains the German philosopher Juliane Rebentisch’s seminal text Camp Materialism. Natural History in Jack Smith revised by the author and presented together with a new addendum A note on Camp Ridiculousness.

Jack Smith presented his performance Irrational Landlordism of Bagdad as part of the Cologne Art Fair fringe in the summer of 1977. Many other events were documented photographically and can now be found in the Cologne Art Fair archives—not so Smith’s performance. This poster publication, edited by Michael Krebber, shows him in his fair stall and during his performance for the first time. The pictures are perfect documents of a completely eccentric transaction by this pioneering director and performance artist.

A note about Jack Smith by Michael Krebber; I will not interpret Jack Smith. I will not interpret Jack Smith. I will not interpret Jack… by Felix Bernstein; I Danced with a Penguin by Enzo Shalom; Broadway Central Narco Moon: Jack Smith and Illegality by Branden W. Joseph; Vile Days: The Village Voice Art Columns, 1985–1988, Gary Indiana in conversation with Bruce Hainley and Sohrab Mohebbi; On the film Shake Down by Leilah Weinraub by Juliana Huxtable; On Nina Könnemann at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin by Megan Francis Sullivan; On Louise Lawler at 80WSE Gallery (NYU), New York by Nick Irvin; On Claire Fontaine at Reena Spaulings, Los Angeles by Anita Chari; On Afuma (Stefan Tcherepnin & Taketo Shimada) at H0L0, Ridgewood by Keith Connolly; On Park McArthur at MoMA, New York by Noah Barker; On the film Vital Behaviors by Ken Okiishi by Felix Bernstein; Garde-montée by Jeanne Graff; Last Summer (Hong Kong SAR) by Sony Devabhaktuni; A Cowboy Narrative by Bernadette Van-Huy; Visual Insert by Jack Smith, 35 mm color slides, I Danced with a Penguin, c. 1983.

Writings is the first collection to widely survey this singular polymath’s prolific activity as a writer. The book spans the years 1961–2012 and includes fifty-seven pieces: essays originally published in small press magazines, exhibition catalogs, anthologies, and album liner notes, along with other previously unpublished texts. Conrad writes about his own work, with substantial contributions on The Flicker, Loose Connection, Four Violins, Articulation of Boolean Algebra for Film Opticals, Early Minimalism, Yellow Movies, Slapping Pythagoras, and Music and the Mind of the World, as well as that of his peers: Tony Oursler, Jack Smith, Rhys Chatham, and Henry Flynt, among others. He devotes critical essays both to grand subjects—horology, neurolinguistics, and the historical development of Western music—and more quotidian topics, such as television advertising and camouflage. Designed by Scott Ponik.