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Twentysix gasoline stations that shook the world: the rise and fall of cheap booklets as art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Clive Phillpot
Clive Phillpot*
Affiliation:
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Abstract

The term ‘artists’ books’ has been used since about 1970 to denote inexpensive booklets produced by artists in ‘unlimited’ editions, but can legitimately embrace a variety of artefacts; the word ‘bookwork’, coined in 1975, carries the more specific meaning of a work of art in book form. Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations, published in 1963, was a pioneering bookwork; it was followed by more bookworks from the same artist through the next ten years; however, Ruscha’s innovatory productions had been preceded by a number of experiments with the book format, by Bruno Munari, Åke Hodell, and others, during the 1950s and early 1960s. Bookworks flourished in the 1970s as a means of making actual works of art available to a wide audience, but in the 1980s this ideal was gradually overtaken by a growing tendency towards making bookworks as precious, costly collectables, in limited editions, while some of the earlier, once cheap bookworks began to sell for inflated prices on the secondhand market. Nonetheless, many artists are continuing to produce relatively inexpensive bookworks, sometimes using photocopiers, or to publish artists’ magazines. The work of Telfer Stokes demonstrates that the multiple book format remains an exciting and accessible medium in the hands of a committed artist.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , 1993 , pp. 4 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1993

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References

Notes

1 Perrault, John. ‘Some thoughts on books as art’ in: Artists Books, Philadelphia: Moore College of Art, 1973. (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

2 Celant, Germano. Book as Artwork 1960/1972. London: Nigel Greenwood Inc., Ltd., 1972.Google Scholar

First published as ‘Book as Artwork 1960/1970’ in: Data vol. 1 no. 1, Settembre 1971, p.35-49. Subsequently published in VH 101 no. 9, Automne 1972, and Interfunktionen no. 11, 1974.

3 Artists’ Bookworks’. London: British Council, 1975. (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

I mention the working title of this exhibition not only for historical detail, but also to make the dinosaurial point, that in 1973, dissatisfied by the term ‘artists’ books’, I tried to foster the term ‘book art’, along the lines of body art, fiber art, mail art, performance art, video art, etc. ‘Book art’ seemed a less restrictive description, but ‘artists’ books’ has proved very resilient, despite meaning many different things to many different people. In some contexts ‘book art’ can be overshadowed by the increasingly popular catch-all ‘book arts’.

4 Phillpot, Clive. ‘Books, Bookworks, Book Objects, Artists’ Books’. Artforum vol. 20 no. 9, May 1982, p.77.Google Scholar

This diagram has been reprinted in French and German publications: Moeglin-Delcroix, Anne. Livres d’Artistes. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou/B.P.I. & Editions Herscher, 1985.Google Scholar And in: Brail, Artur. Künstlerbücher, Artists’ Books, Book as Art: Ausstellungen, Dokumentationen, Kataloge, Kritiken. Frankfurt am Main: Kretschmer & Grossman, 1986.Google Scholar

5 The Works of Edward Ruscha. New York: Hudson Hills Press & San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1987. (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

6 Although the title page includes the date ‘1962’, the last page of the first edition states that the ‘400 copies were printed in April, 1963’.

7 ‘“… a kind of a Huh?” An Interview with Edward Ruscha by Willoughby Sharp.’ Avalanche no. 7 Winter/Spring 1973, p.30.Google Scholar

8 Ibid, p.30.

9 ‘Concerning “Various Small Fires”: Edward Ruscha Discusses his Perplexing Publications.’ Artforum vol. 3 no. 5 February 1965, p.25.Google Scholar

10 Avalanche Winter/Spring 1973, p.30.Google Scholar

11 Artforum February 1965, p.25.

12 I have explored this topic further in ‘Letters in Space’, in Twenty Years of British Art from the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. Miami Beach: Bass Museum of Art, 1988. (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

13 See advertisement, ‘Rejected …’ in Artforum vol. 2 no. 9 March 1964, p.55.Google Scholar

14 Artforum February 1965, p.25.

15 Ibid, p.25.

16 While this remark is true with respect to the content, it should be noted that there are small differences between the first and subsequent printings. For example the second and third printings are bound differently from the first printing; their covers are not scored near the spine, and they are comprised of six signatures instead of three. In addition publishing information is on the verso of the title page, whereas in the first printing it is on the last page of the book – together with the ‘copy no.’ handwritten in red.

17 Kellein, Thomas. ‘Fröhliche Wissenschaft’: Das Archiv Sohm. Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie, 1986.Google Scholar

18 Bruno Munari. Napoli: Edizioni Morra, 1990, p.72, footnote 15.Google Scholar

19 Lyons, Joan, ed. Artists’ Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook. Rochester, New York: Visual Studies Workshop, 1985. p.96–132.Google Scholar

20 At the end of my essay in Artists’ Books: A Critical Anthology, I mentioned Janet Zweig as a committed book maker. At that time she had only two or three books published; now she has at least five. Other women whose work might feature in another survey, are Joan Lyons herself, Ida Applebroog, Adrian Piper and Athena Tacha. Clarissa Sligh is yet another artist whose bibliography is growing.

21 Leandro Katz: The Catherwood Project. Syracuse: Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse University, 1992 (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

22 Åke Hodell: Resor I Inre Landskap, 1952-1987. Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1987. (Exhibition catalog.)Google Scholar

23 Sol LeWitt: Books 1966-1990. Frankfurt: Portikus & Koln: Walther Konig, 1990.Google Scholar Richard Long. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum & Thames and Hudson, 1986.Google Scholar Lawrence Weiner: Books 1968-1989, Catalogue Raisonné. Koln: Walther Konig, 1989.Google Scholar

24 For more on a wider context for artists’ publications see my essay ‘Booktrek: The Next Frontier’ in Printed Matter Bookstore at Dia: Books by Artists, Spring Catalogue. 1990. New York: Printed Matter, 1990.Google Scholar

25 I would like to thank Ase Markussen, Sune Nordgren, Mirella Bentivoglio, Trevor Fawcett and Beth Houghton for their help in the realization of this (provisional) essay. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the British Council in making it possible to deliver the original paper in person in Oxford, England, in April 1992.