There are no prerequisites for this course.

In ‘Paper Events’, you are introduced to a variety of historical and current aspects of artists’ publications, including artists’ books, artists’ magazines and artists’ pages. To become familiar with this ‘hidden art history’, we will be addressing several publications from the 20th century and today, examining the way the artist conceptualized and realized the printed matter in question. The creative and critical way in which visual artists have considered the medium of books, pages and magazines could potentially offer insight and inspiration for the current practice of visual art and design. Paper Events II focuses on books and magazines of the neo-avant-garde and contemporary period (1960s - today). All the publications under discussion are from CRAP (Collection for Research on Artists’ Publications), assembled by the teacher.

Publications by artists seem to be everywhere today, but they do not exist that long. The course aims at offering tools for analysis and frames of reference concerning books and magazines created and/or published by visual artists.

After World War II, the neo-avant-gardes in Europe and the US rediscovered the printed media as a tool for promoting new art forms and ideas. Artists of the Concrete art and Cobra movement, the ZERO-network, Concrete Poetry, Fluxus, Happening, Pop Art, Minimalism, Performance and Conceptual art all explored print to create new works in the forms of artists' pages and artists' books, and as documentation of ephemeral events or conceptual projects. Artists published themselves, but galleries and other specialized publishers emerged in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the first exhibitions and specialized bookstores for artists' publications emerged in both Europe and the U.S.A., like Other Books and So (Amsterdam) and Printed Matter (New York).

From the late 1970s on Postmodernism witnessed a decline in conceptual artists' publications, but the self-made zines of the Punk movement provided alternative tactics and strategies for self-publishing. Since the 1990s the artist’s book and the artist’s magazine enjoy a remarkable revival. In the age of speedy digital communication, a lot of young artists appreciate the material aspects of print and turn towards self-publishing zines and booklets to distribute their work. DIY (Do It Yourself) has become the new motto in art publishing. Besides this, the pioneering publications of the avant-gardes and neo-avant-gardes are being rediscovered and revalued as a primary source of information and inspiration for contemporary creators and publishers.

Therefore, we will look at the evolution of the artists' book and artists' magazine and discuss relevant artists, publishers and publications of the second half of the 20th and early 21th century. All the publications discussed are from CRAP! (Collection for Research on Artists' Publications) see: https://nl-nl.facebook.com/CRAP-Collection-for-Research-on-Artists-Publications-1581445291906291/. We will also look at recent and new publications in class. You are invited to bring interesting items to discuss. Please feel free to bring your own creations as well!

The following texts will be provided digitally and are available in print:

PAS, Johan, Artists' Publications: The Belgian Contribution, Koenig Books, London, 2017
PAS, Johan, DOCKX, Nico, A Kind of a “Huh?”. Artists’ Publications, (not) a Manual, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerpen, 2023

You will put up a compact research project about a late 20th century or a contemporary artists’ publication, presented in a paper and an oral examination (in English or in Dutch).