Review\nThough technically monographic, 'by Alison Knowles' necessarily convenes an entire Fluxus ensemble. Isolating Knowles from Higgins, Williams, George Brecht, Philip Corner, Shigeko Kubota, George Maciunas, Benjamin Patterson, Nam June Paik, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, and the omnipresent John Cage is like extracting the glue from a collage. In my experience, the best Fluxus exhibitions avoid grasping at epistemologically slippery questions about what Fluxus was and instead explore what Fluxus can still do. -- Colby Chamberlain ― Artforum\nBy Alison Knowles smartly pushes the exhibition catalogue towards the form of artists’ book, a fitting push for the work of such a seminal figure in the field. -- Megan N. Liberty ― Brooklyn Rail\nThe first survey of the Fluxus cofounder’s prolific avant-garde output, from eight-foot-tall books to make-a-salad performances 
The American artist Alison Knowles’ (born 1933) groundbreaking experiments―from painting and printmaking to sculpture and installation, sound works, poetry and artist’s books―have influenced art and artists for more than 50 years but remain relatively unknown among mainstream audiences. The first comprehensive volume on the artist, By Alison Knowles: A Retrospective presents more than 200 objects that span the entire breadth of her career, from her intermedia works of the 1960s to forms of participatory and relational art in the 2000s. 
The accompanying catalog features contributions by international Fluxus curators, historians and scholars, including lead essays by organizer Karen Moss, Hannah B. Higgins and Nicole Woods, and short contributions by co-editor Lucia Fabio, Lauren Fulton, Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot. It also includes reprints of key articles by Benjamin Buchloh, Julia Robinson and Kristine Stiles, as well as a conversation between Alison Knowles and poet George Quasha. Richly illustrated with more than 250 images, the full-color catalog, designed by Kimberly Varella, includes a softcover lay-flat binding, special colored papers for each section, die-cut section dividers and a chronology. The cover of the book is a makeready (press sheets gathered from printing the interior of the book) produced during the printing of the interior pages. Each cover in the edition is unique.

By Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960–2022)

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

D.A.P./University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Published on the occasion of the first major survey of Barry McGee’s work, this monumental volume records more than two decades of incredible fecundity, over the course of which McGee has pioneered a new iconography of sharp street vitality and graphic snap. McGee began as a graffiti artist on the streets of San Francisco, working under such tags as Ray Fong, Twist and Twisto, and his work since then has hugely expanded the terms of both street art and contemporary art. The freshness of McGee’s work stems in part from his virtuoso handling and consolidation of a whole panoply of influences, from hobo art, sign painting and graffiti to comics, Beat literature and much else. His extraordinary skill as a draughtsman is energized by his insistence on pushing at the parameters of art--his work can be shockingly informal in the gallery and surprisingly elegant on the street--and by his keen nose for social malaise. This volume revisits McGee’s most influential installations in art spaces, and considers the evolution of his aesthetic within institutional settings. Previously unseen photographs by Craig Costello document the artist’s work on the streets of San Francisco in the early 90s, highlighting the contributions of his friends and mentors. Also included are images from the artist’s famous slide lecture, compiled and refined over the past 20 years, and an oral history of the Bay Area’s Mission School by McGee’s friends, mentors and collaborators. Featuring 450 images, including many never before published, the book is designed by the artist in collaboration with Conny Purtill.

Barry McGee

Baker, Alex

Boas, Natasha

Deitch, Jeffrey

Celant, Germano

Reference

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