Solar System & Rest Rooms
Writings and Interviews 1965-2007
Mel Bochner
Saturday, March 07, 2009, 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Printed Matter, Inc. is pleased to announce a book signing for Mel Bochner’s Solar Systems and Restrooms. The artist will be present to sign copies on Saturday, March 16th from 5:00 – 7:00 PM. Printed Matter is located at 195 10th Avenue (between 21 and 22nd Streets) in New York City.
A critic more by necessity than design, Mel Bochner started writing art reviews as a way to pay his rent. Then in 1966, Bochner had a revelation about the possible reverberations of art writing across the divide between visual artists and writers. This moment launched a series of investigations into what Bocher identified as the "boundary between writing-as-criticism and writing-as-visual-art." In pieces such as "The Domain of the Great Bear", co-authored with Robert Smithson and "The Beach Boys–'100%'," Bochner created artwork camouflaged as magazine articles. Solar Systems and Restrooms reprints these works, along with the early reviews, and presents an insight into the development of a key conceptual artist’s writing practice. Reflecting the aesthetics of reproduction in Bochner’s work, many pages in the book present the works in facsimile.
Containing more than fifty pieces, Solar Systems and Restrooms gathers together Bochner’s various linguistic aims, including reviews, interviews, statements, notecards, and reflections on artists such as Barnett Newman, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin. Solar Systems and Restrooms has recently been the focus of articles by Jeffrey Weiss in Artforum and by Barry Schwabsky in Art in America.
Since his seminal exhibition, "Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed As Art" in 1966, Bochner has exhibited extensively at museums and galleries worldwide.
Published as part of MIT Press’ "Writing Art" series, Solar Systems and Restrooms is a 235-page, hardcover book and retails for $39.95. It may be purchased through Printed Matter’s storefront or online at www.printedmatter.org. Mail order requests for signed copies may be arranged in advance.
A limited number of copies of the 1997 edition of Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed As Art are also available through Printed Matter.
For additional information, please contact AA Bronson at aabronson @ printedmatter.org.
Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists' books and other artists' publications.
Printed Matter, Inc. has received support, in part, through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Altria Group Inc, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Gesso Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Schoenstadt Family Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and individuals worldwide.