Primary Information Libri

This essential collection of texts and manifestos from women artists addresses gender and race issues in cultural institutions. First published in 1971, it chronicles the efforts of W.A.R., a group of women artists, filmmakers, writers, and cultural workers dedicated to enhancing women's roles in the art world. Notable members included Juliette Gordon, Sara Saporta, and Faith Ringgold, among others. Active from 1969 to 1971, W.A.R. emerged as the women's caucus of the Art Workers' Coalition (AWC), which focused on anti-war protests, anti-racist actions, artists' rights, equitable wages, and the decentralization of museums across New York City. This facsimile publication compiles manifestos, statements, and declarations from W.A.R. members, alongside articles and reports highlighting gendered and racial discrimination in the arts. It includes pro-abortion flyers, protest materials, and documentation of the Women's Interart Center, established in spring 1970 as W.A.R.'s studio and exhibition space. Key actions, such as the 1970 Art Strike Against Racism, Sexism, Repression, and War, are also documented, along with correspondence with major institutions like the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Foundation. This edition, selected for its preface and retrospective reflections, offers a comprehensive view of W.A.R.'s history and impact.

"Forty-six years after its publication, Primary Information brings Yvonne Rainer's classic book back into print in an exact facsimile. In 1974, Yvonne Rainer published Work 1961-73, an illustrated catalog of her performance works up to that point. In these years, as the art world turned toward minimalism, Rainer and her Judson Dance Theater colleagues were engaged in a parallel, and equally radical, redefinition of dance. Stripping dance of its pomp and self-serious virtuosity, they created what dancer and choreographer Pat Catterson has called 'the people's dance.' Or, as Rainer put it, instead of the 'overblown plot' of traditional dance, she explored the obvious alternative: 'stand, walk, run, eat, carry bricks, show movies, or move and be moved by some thing other than oneself.' Work 1961-73 chronicles the years when Rainer found herself and her work at the heart of a revolution in dance, performance and art. Written in Rainer's wonderful frank, funny and perceptive prose, and illustrated with photographs, handwritten scores, sketches, press articles and ephemera, Work 1961-73 is a period document and an instruction manual, an archive and a manifesto. A sought-after, rare classic, Work 1961-73 is brought back into print in a true facsimile edition by Primary Information; the only change is the small addition of new notes at the back of the book"--Artbook.com

"Writings 1973-1983 on Works 1969-1979" is a crucial document capturing a decade of Michael Asher's innovative work. First published in 1983, it showcases 33 projects through the artist's writings, photographic evidence, architectural plans, exhibition announcements, and other materials. Asher's approach diverges from traditional art-making; he focused on transforming the institutional frameworks of art presentation, creating works that rely on the architectural, social, and economic contexts of art production and experience. Notable examples include his 1974 alteration of the Claire Copley Gallery, where he removed a partition wall, and the 1978 relocation of a bronze replica of George Washington from outside the Art Institute of Chicago to an indoor space, shifting its role from public monument to curated sculpture. Asher's site-specific and ephemeral works often ceased to exist post-exhibition, making this book an invaluable resource for understanding his contributions during this era. Asher reflects in the introduction on the book's material permanence, which contrasts with the fleeting nature of his art. This publication was initiated by Kasper König and co-published by the Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, with significant input from art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchloh.

A facsimile of Graham's ultra-rare artist's book documenting early performance works Originally published in 1978 and produced here in facsimile form, Theatreis an artist's book documenting seven early performance works by Dan Graham (born 1942) taking place from 1969 to 1977, with notes, transcripts and photo documentation for each performance. These performances catch the artist at a unique moment, as he shifts away from his early media works and towards his hallmark video and written work around underground music and youth culture. The works in Theatrefocus primarily on the psychological and social space between individuals and the roles they serve inside the arena of performance, subverting them by creating conditions by which a performer or audience simultaneously functions as both (creating a type of feedback loop through social transgression). Like most of Graham's work, these performances also serve as a critique of cultural norms, with many of the performances utilizing quotidian, social acts that are amplified over time.

The working notes of the influential video artist behind Technology/ Wonder Woman This facsimile edition of Note(s): Work(ing) Process(es) Concerns (That Take On / Deal With) was completed in 1977 as a single handmade copy by the multimedia artist Dara Birnbaum (born 1946). It includes notes for works such as Attack Piece, Mirroring and Turning Around Suppositions , where Birnbaum interrogates the role of mass media in contemporary society and its means of production through sketches, transcripts, photographs and diagrams for installations and videos that take as their subject film clichés, gender roles, patriotism, emotional states and psychology, among others.Note(s) documents her contributions to the burgeoning Conceptual art movement and underscores her significant but under-recognized influence upon the emergence of feminist art, video art and the Pictures Generation.

A collaborative artist’s book of musical scores based on Norwegian knitting patterns For Identity Pitches , artists Cory Arcangel (born 1978) and Stine Janvin (born 1985) have composed conceptual music scores based on the knitting patterns for traditional Norwegian sweaters known as Lusekofte. Utilizing three of the most popular designs (Setesdal, Fana and the eight-petal rose of Selbu) of this ubiquitous garment, Janvin creates scores for both solo and ensemble performers by mapping the knitting patterns onto the harmonic and subharmonic series and integrating the tuning principles of traditional Norwegian instruments. These scores are further manipulated by Arcangel using a custom “deep-fried” coding script to create a series of image glitches.A foreword and an interview between the two artists, both based in Stavanger, Norway, provide context for the work, delving into the history of Norwegian folk music tunings and the Lusekofte sweater and their intersection with the cultural identity of the country over the last millennium.

Shame Space is an artist book that explores the possibilities of narrative and identity. The book collects a selection of journal writings by Syms from 2015-2017 in which she attempts to capture her shadow self alongside a selection of image stills from the recent video project Ugly Plymouths (2020). The diaristic commentary in Shame Space is gathered into fifteen chapters that stage narrative as a process of being in the making.