Artists: Agata Madejska, Slavs & Tatars, 20th Century Art Archives, Abbas Zahedi, Alaa Abu Asad & Ulufer Çelik, Anastasia Pavlou, Anna-Sophie Springer & Etienne Turpin, Belmacz, Black Pages, Camilla Løw, Caragh Thuring, Carla Åhlander, Charlott Weise & Franziska Schulz, Claudia Kugler, Coco Crampton, Daniel Ferstl, David Tremlett, Diagonal Press, Elisabeth Molin, Emma McCormick-Goodhart, Fehras Publishing Practices, Georgia Sowerby, Gernot Wieland, Gregorio Magnani, Guilherme Dable, Hanna Mattes, Hansjörg Meyer, Joel Tomlin, Johanna Magdalena Guggenberger, Kellenberger-White, KOSA & Marius Engh, Liam Tickner, Lina Viste Grønli, Long Distance Press, Marco Bruzzone, Michalis Pichler, Michela de Mattei, Mikael Brkic, Morten Skrøder Lund, Nicole Wermers, Null Zero, Oskar Korsár, Paul Housley, Paul Kindersley, Philipp Fleischmann, Postcard Teas, Ricardo de Carli, Rorhof, Rowena Hughes, Salvatore Viviano, Sam Austen, Samuel Stokes, saxpublishers, Simon Popper, Sophie Nys, Steph Huang, Telfer Stokes, The Everyday Press, Tim Berresheim
Belmacz is pleased to present an exhibition dedicated to artist publications.
B is for Book, and in the Beginning was the word. The written word, and then the printed word; and now, the digital word.
Since the scroll became a codex in late Antiquity, artists have been associated with the published word.The illuminated manuscript stirred curlicue lettering and gilded marginalia and the artist publication is a slippery mutation of this — an ongoing investigation into the gap between visual and written language, existing outside thetic categories.
Often self-published, produced single-handedly or through a small press — B brings together pieces which reference the thingliness of the book without being confined to seriality or sequence. B marks both the collaborative and the singular, where processes and materials can consist of reams of A4 from a photocopier, stapled shut to the letter pressed and hand bound. B cuts out the middle-man.
B is an opposition to the muscular catalogue raisonne — all fur coat and no knickers. These objects are space for both the hidden and the seen; they are to be unpacked, unfolded, unfurled — offering a spine to crack or a concertina run on — turned upside down, inside out, read between the lines. Laconic or verbose — an invitation to misunderstand in the age of Information is Power.
B is a presentation of objects which could be bought or could be given away for free. Objects which could be collected, displayed, stored, hoarded, boxed. But B is also a presentation of viral objects sent out to the world, left on the tube, given to a friend who might be interested — love notes.
— Georgia Sowerby