Printed Matter. Learn to read art

MUSAC’s Showcase Project will host Printed Matter, the world’s biggest non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of publications made by artists

Starting July 11 2009 MUSAC’s Vitrinas project will be featuring Printed Matter, the largest non-profit organisation in the world devoted to promoting publications made by artists. AA Bronson, the organization’s director and the curator of this show, will create a display for MUSAC so that visitors will be able to get to know some of its most representative publications —dating from 1976 to our day— including large artists’ books, small format books, and magazines, catalogues and other artists’ editions produced by the organization.

About Printed Matter The origin of Printed Matter dates back to 1976, when a group of artists and art workers created a space for artistic creation and workshops in New York, which was converted into the current organization two years later. The founders of this organisation include figures of considerable standing, such as Carl Andre, Edit DeAk, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Walter Robinson, Pat Steir, Mimi Wheeler, Robin White and Irena von Zahn.

Printed Matter specialises in large editions of artists’ books and objects at reduced prices, which distances it from the concept of “book arts” and “book objects” as these are often produced in small pricey editions. Over the last few decades, the organisation has positioned itself as a major agent of investigation and reflection on the changing role of artistic publications in the realm of contemporary art. Printed Matter’s mission is to foster among the greater public the distribution, appreciation and study of artists’ publications, whether these are books or other types of editioned publications conceived as “artworks for the page”. In many cases, Printed Matter is one of the few resources available to emerging artists who are beginning to explore the medium, or for those artists whose work is not commercially viable. Its objectives include fostering critical approach to and discussion about the artistic publishing field, forging connections between the publishing field and other contemporary artistic practices as well as with the social and political environment that contains and affects all art production.

For the purpose of promoting public access to and awareness of its endeavours in its headquarters in New York’s Chelsea district, Printed Matter has a public reading room where its more than 15,000 publications by 5,000 international artists are available for viewing and purchase. It also offers a free consulting service to libraries, art institutions and art professionals. And there is an extensive educational programme including discussions, book presentations, public readings, performances and exhibitions aimed at broadening public knowledge of art publications, as well as offering public visibility to particular artists or artist groups. Furthermore, in 2006 the organisation created the NY Art Book Fair, with the intention of re-establishing the city of New York as a centre of artistic publishing production, attracting more than 700 exhibitors and numerous visitors to what is the only fair that is free to the public in the city of New York.

Find more information about Printed Matter at www.printedmatter.org

Printed Matter. Learn to Read Art at MUSAC For the Showcase Project at MUSAC, the project’s curator AA Bronson will create a display so that visitors will be able to get to know some of its most representative publications —dating from 1976 to our day— including large artists’ books, small format books, magazines, catalogues and other artists’ editions produced by the organization. Also, an edition of 3.000 copies of the badge Learn to read art, created for Printed Matter by artist Lawrence Weiner, will be produced and distributed for free on the opening day. In addition to this, a small editorial project will be created by Ari Marcopoulos for Printed Matter & MUSAC.

About AA. Bronson AA Bronson lived and worked as one of the three artists of General Idea from 1969 through to 1994, presenting over 100 solo exhibitions, publishing FILE magazine, and founding Art Metropole, Toronto, an artist-run centre for artists’ editions and publications. Director of Art Metropole from 1974 to 1984 and again in the mid nineties, Bronson developed Art Metropole’s permanent collection of 13,000 artists’ books and editions, and oversaw its transfer to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Since 1999, he has exhibited internationally as a solo artist at the Secession, Vienna; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the MIT List Visual Art Center, Cambridge; and The Power Plant, Toronto. Author and editor of more than 40 books, including his autobiography Negative Thoughts (2001), he is also the director of Printed Matter, Inc., New York City. Recent curatorial projects include solo exhibitions of editions by Barbara Bloom, Aleksandra Mir, Micah Lexier, Fiona Banner, and Fierce Pussy. His interest in contemporary art history has led him to curate exhibitions such as From Sea to Shining Sea (1987), The Power Plant, Toronto; I will not make any more boring art (2006), Printed Matter, New York; and most recently, Learn to Read Art: A History of Printed Matter (2008), Artspeak, Vancouver. He was appointed senior critic at the School of Art, Yale University, New Haven in 2006. In 2007, he was named honorary doctor of fine arts by NSCAD University, Halifax, and most recently was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Title: Printed Matter. Learn to read art Curator: AA Bronson Coordinator: Carlos Ordás Place: Proyecto Vitrinas Dates: July 11, 2009 – January 10, 2010 www.printedmatter.org

Printed Matter 
Learn to read art
Kurator: AA Bronson