LIPPARD, Lucy R., curator.

Vigilance: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books Exploring Strategies for Social Concern (11-29 March [1980]).

Single newsprint sheet (212 x 147 mm. folded), horizontal & vertical folds, printed address label. New York: Printed Matter, Inc., [1980].

A special copy—mailed to art historian Barbara Moore (b. 1948)—of this rare catalogue for a show organized by Lucy R. Lippard (b. 1937), a co-founder of Printed Matter, and Mike Glier. Franklin Furnace hosted the exhibition and all of the artists’ publications in it were available for sale at Printed Matter. It includes books by Ida Applebroog, Victor Burgin, Guerrilla Art Action Group, Jenny Holzer, Jörg Immendorf, Suzanne Lacy, Annette Messager, Clemente Padin, Adrian Piper, Athena Tacha, Art & Language, etc., etc. Lippard has written a searing text that is particularly poignant and shows how little matters have changed since the 1980s.

On the other side of the sheet is a further listing of books that serve as an addendum to Printed Matter’s 1979 sale catalogue. The top of the sheet mentions an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, NY about artist’s books.

From Lippard’s text: “VIGILANCE looks at artist’s books as vehicles for aesthetic/social investigation. These investigations have two directions, inward to the self and outward to the other. Awareness depends on the development of both. Looking inward, these artists address a variety of subjects including feminist consciousness, male consciousness, and sexuality. Looking outward, the issues include détente, the family, propaganda, surveillance, political trials, racism, communal structures, and functional design. Beginning the outreach sensibility, artists have begun to collaborate on artwork, itself. The books comprising VIGILANCE have a full expressive range; there is anger, insight, conjecture, sympathy and wit. One quality, however, unites them–a sense of involvement, a satisfying sense of mutual participation in a positive direction. Taking responsibility for the collective ‘us’ seems to feel good.”

A fine copy with distinguished provenance. WorldCat records just two examples in the United States.

❧ Tony Whitfield reported on this exhibition in the September 1980 issue of Artforum.

Price: $950.00

Item ID: 11367