PowerPrint

POWERPRINT. 10 x 10 Radical Books Since 1914 In 1914 Mallarmé’s groundbreaking poem Un Coup de Dés Jamais n’abolira le Hasard was posthumously published as a book by the Éditions Gallimard. That same year Marinetti’s futurist poetry book Zang Tumb Tuuum apppeared in Milan. The two publications were as radical as they were to be influential for the European avant-gardes. They definitively credited the book as a crucial tool for the avant-garde. The first avant-garde books of the Futurists, Dadaists and Constructivists were to be followed by a vast number of neo-avant-garde publications, which lead to the acceptance of the ‘artist’s book’ as a full-fledged medium during the conceptualist 1960s and 1970s.



 

Today, the artist’s book is being rediscovered by a new generation of neo-conceptual and DIY artists. ‘The religion of the book’ can indeed also refer to the specific status the book enjoyed with advanced artists. In their hands, the book developed from a mere passive and generic medium into an active and experimental tool. Interpreting the ‘religions of the book’ theme of the SHARP conference in a more profane way, POWERPRINT, an exhibition with radical books since 1914 will take place in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. The selection of the books will be by Johan Pas, an art historian specialized in the printed matter of the neo-avant-gardes and a passionate book collector. The exhibition takes the form of ten chapters, each one of which treats the formal and conceptual possibilities of the printed publication. 

 

Guided tour by curator Johan Pas on Wednesday 17 September at 11.00. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts is close to the conference venue. SHARP participants are also invited to visit the exhibition individually from Monday 15 to Friday 19 September from 10.00 to 17.00.