Item ID: 8590 Mailed flyer: “Joint Communiqué,” used as an announcement for the collective’s first exhibition at Other Books and So (4-22 November 1975), with a typewritten blue sticker adhered to the head of the verso with the exhibition dates and location. BEAU GESTE PRESS.

(BEAU GESTE PRESS).

Mailed flyer: “Joint Communiqué,” used as an announcement for the collective’s first exhibition at Other Books and So (4-22 November 1975), with a typewritten blue sticker adhered to the head of the verso with the exhibition dates and location.

Single A4 sheet with brown paper seal for mailing, horizontal folds. Amsterdam: 1975.

A famous Beau Geste Press flyer repurposed as a mailed invitation for the group’s 1975 Other Books and So exhibition. Ulises Carrión forged a close relationship with Felipe Ehrenberg and Martha Hellion, co-founders of the Devon-based small artist-run press. In 1973, he published two artist’s books with Beau Geste Press: Arguments and Tras la Poesía. Carrión also learned first-hand about printing processes, in particular mimeography, which he employed frequently in later years. With the opening of Other Books and So in Amsterdam, Carrión soon became one of the international distributors of Beau Geste Press publications and periodicals.

The blue sticker with typewritten text reads: “Other Books and So (new BGP distributor for Europe) invites you to the view of the previous and latest publications of Beau Geste Press. 4-22 November, Herengracht 227, Amsterdam. Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10 am– 5.30 pm.”

And from the “Little History” provided in the “Joint Communiqué”: “Beau Geste Press has functioned for two years and grown not so much as a business (ha!) but as a working association with friends: practically every production here was possible because both the Press and the author entered into a partnership. One that encompassed materials, labour, technical know-how, and which followed right through to distribution, that crucial point in which people come into contact with individuals’ productions. Profit sharing would have been the next logical step were there to have been any profits. (Whenever possible in the future, each book will contain a detailed breakdown of costs –information usually secret from both readers and authors.)”

A signature document linking two pioneering institutions in the history of small artist-run institutions formed to assert control over the means of production and distribution of their artworks. In fine condition; minuscule closed tears from the staples. Mailed to the Dutch critic Lily van Ginneken.

❧ Catalogue 237: Ulises Carrión (2022), p. 180.

A. Motard, ed., Beau Geste Press (2020), pp. 322 & 330 (pictured).