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Specific Object (2004 – 20013) was a gallery, bookstore and think-tank dedicated to art post 1960s – specifically pop, Fluxus, minimal and conceptual – with an interest in the art that informed the 1960s and 1970s, as well artists whose works organically followed from the era.
Specific Object worked to isolate distinct works of value – historically, monetarily and / or intellectually valuable – and show them in an isolated context allowing these works, or objects, their own place, space and time. The material Specific Object presented ranged from artists’ publications, ephemera, prints, multiples and other editions to literature, music / audio works and unique artworks of the contemporary world.
In November 2004 Specific Object acquired the inventory of Barbara Moore’s bookstore Bound & Unbound. Through her bookshops Bound & Unbound and its predecessor Backworks, founded in 1976, Moore has been a seminal and innovative champion of artists working in alternative mediums.
From 1998 through 2004 David Platzker was the Executive Director of the non-profit institution Printed Matter, Inc. He is also the co-author, and co-curator – with Elizabeth Wyckoff – of Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process (International Print Center New York & Hudson Hills Press, 2000); and – with Richard H. Axsom – the book and exhibition entitled Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg : A Catalogue Raisonne 1958-1996 (Madison Art Center & Hudson Hills Press, 1997), which was awarded the George Wittenborn Award for Best Art Publication of 1997 by the Art Libraries Society of North America.
He has curated exhibitions of the works of Art & Project, John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Documenta 5, Conceptual Art, Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Oldenburg, Raymond Pettibon, Dieter Roth, and Edward Ruscha in addition to commissioning or curating exhibitions at Printed Matter of Angelblood, Larry Clark, Erin Cosgrove, Meg Cranston, General Idea, Jenny Holzer, Reverend Jen, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Ryan McGinness, Sonic Youth, Tom Sachs, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle and the Guerrilla Girls.
Platzker was also the host of WPS1.org’s Recorded Matter on-line radio program. Archived programs can be found at www.artonair.org.
On May 15, 2013 David Platzker became Curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (until 2018).
A.C. Kupper
Ich Vermute, dass diese Karte zu einer Gruppenausstellung im Helmhaus von A.C. Kupper gestaltet worden ist. Ich finde sie sehr schön… aber der Lack lässt mich zweifeln…
Ed Ruscha
User comment: “Ich nehme die Einladungen/Plakate der Galerie Sprüht Magers regelmässig mit nach Ausstellungsbesuchen. Ed Ruschas “Einladung” hängt in meiner Küche.” Johann Voss
Luigi Ghirri
Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992) spent his working life in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
“Inspired in part by the Conceptual art of his time, Luigi Ghirri used his camera to examine the relationship between the physical world and the world of images. His subject was the landscape around him, but his photographs are much more than visual documents of 1970s and 1980s Italy. With his uncanny eye for composition, Ghirri searched out chance arrangements in the human-built world, framing them in his camera’s viewfinder like found photomontages. He worked in color because, as he put it, “the real world is in color,” and he made modestly sized meticulous prints, rarely producing more than one or two from each image.” Excerpt of the press release by Mathew Marks Gallery for this show in 2014.
Temporary Vitrine by Gesa Schneider
A selection of invitation cards curated by Gesa Schneider, head of Literaturhaus Zürich.
Temporary Vitrine by Arthur Fink
Bags for books curated by Swiss art historian Arthur Fink, one of the founders of Hacienda, an independent art space in Zürich.
Les Complices* printed matter
Les Complices*
Die bei Les Complices* realisierten und produzierten Ausstellungen, Projekte und Veranstaltungen bewegen sich zwischen den Bereichen zeitgenössische Kunst, Theater und Film, kritischer Theorie und aktivistischer Praxis. In einem dichten Veranstaltungsprogramm von Diskussionen, Workshops, Performances, Publikationspräsentationen, Vorträgen und Filmscreenings versucht Les Complices* undisziplinierte Formen des Austausches und der gemeinsamen Auseinandersetzung zu ermöglichen. Als Bestandteil der fortlaufenden Aktivitäten produziert und koproduziert Les Complices* auch grössere Ausstellungs-, Publikations- oder Filmprojekte, sowie Inszenierungen in enger Zusammenarbeit mit den Beteiligten und anderen selbstorganisierten Strukturen, Institutionen oder Gruppen.
Les Complices* versteht Kulturarbeit als eine Praxis, die sich kritisch mit Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen, den zahlreichen Formen von Rassismus und Ausgrenzung in westlichen Gesellschaften, Heteronormativität und Kapitalismus auseinandersetzen und sich aktiv an diesen Diskurse beteiligen möchten. Les Complices* positioniert sich damit auch kritisch gegenüber dem Konzept der “Neutralität”
Les Complices* wurde im Oktober 2002 als Verein gegründet. Der Raum wurde von 2007 bis Ende 2014 von Andrea Thal geleitet. Ab 2015 sind Gökçe Ergör und Martina Baldinger für das Programm verantwortlich. Mitarbeiter_innen: Ingrid Käser.
Invitation cards using books
Yesterday I was musing on the fact that so many invitation cards use books in their design – whether it be images of book covers, photographs of real books, paintings or drawings of books, stacks of books, self made books, images from performances using books…..and then Daniel came in and I was explaining my idea to him and he mentioned that Christoph Schifferli, from whose personal collection a lot of the invitation cards in this exhibition come from, had himself planned an entire wall in the exhibition based around the concept of cards using printed matter – a nice serendipity. I was a little stricter in my choice though and only photographed cards using books, not printed matter in general.
Terry Winters
Yvonne Quimbach@ New Jerseyy
“Quirmbach has been designing books for contemporary artists and institutions since 1995, when as a student of communication design in Wuppertal, she produced her first catalogue for collaborative artists Walter Dahn and Philip Pocock. In Cologne in the 1990s and 2000s, Yvonne was met with the ideal conditions for an emerging designer—her proximity to the publisher and bookseller Walther König, the galleries Monika Sprüth and Daniel Buchholz, and the Museum Ludwig all contributed to her developing sensibility. Among this milieu she sparked early collaboration and friendship with artists such as Rosemarie Trockel, Matti Braun, Walter Dahn, Monika Baer, Cosima von Bonin, Manfred Pernice, and others, all of whom shaped her work and her methods of working.” Source
Together with Jörn Bötnagel she founded the gallery BQ: “Yvonne Quirmbach was still studying graphic design, and Jörn Bötnagel had just taken a job at Monika Sprüth’s gallery. In 1998, a small space—the porter’s lodge—became available in the rear courtyard of the Sprüth Gallery. It became the BQ project space. In 2000, BQ participated in their first art fair, Art Cologne. In 2002, they opened their first gallery space in a small store on Jülicher Strasse in Cologne. A year later, BQ was invited to take part in Art Basel. They used the opportunities that these fairs offered in their own unique way: as “large solo exhibitions.” After all, the booths often had more floor space than their gallery. The gallery has been situated in Berlin since 2009 and on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz since 2011.” Source
See the show here