Nieves
An Exhibition
April 4 – May 23, 2009
Opening Reception
Saturday, April 4, 2009, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Printed Matter is pleased to announce an exhibition with the legendary Swiss publisher Nieves. The exhibition will feature a full retrospective of Nieve’s zine program since 2004 as well as a selection of the books published by the press since its founding in 2001. The opening reception will also serve as a book launch for new titles by Henry Roy, Katerina Christidi, Harmony Korine as well as the compilation Zine Box 2008. The exhibition will open on April 4, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at Printed Matter, which is located at 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Street) in New York City.
Nieves was founded in 2001 by Benjamin Sommerhalder, following the demise of his short-lived magazine Zoo. From the start, Nieves has published critically acclaimed, yet diverse, publications from a who’s who of visual delinquents: Rita Ackermann, Linus Bill, Robin Cameron, Larry Clark, Marcel Dzama, Chris Johanson, Kim Gordon, Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Ari Marcopoulos, Mike Mills, Rick Myers, Aaron Rose, Ed Templeton, and Andrew Jeffrey Wright to name but a few. The publications have taken on a variety of forms, from limited edition, photocopied zines, to more-formally recognized hardcover, perfect-bound and offset books. In the last eight years, Nieves has become one of the most talked about names in European publishing and Sommerhalder recently won the Jan Tschichold award, a prestigious award given annually on the occasion of “The Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition.
Although I have collected artists’ books for several decades, this is the first time that I have trusted a publisher’s tastes and program to intersect so completely with my own. Perhaps this is because Benjamin Sommerhalder, who is Nieves itself, is not so much a publisher as someone taking pleasure in artists’ zines and in the act of publishing.
AA Bronson
“Nieves”, The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, 2009
The exhibition will feature over 100 zines published by Nieves since 2004, making them available for reading and perusing. Also on view will be a broad selection of books published by the press since 2001. Nieves authors Rick Myers and Tim Barber will be on hand to sign their publications at the opening reception, which will also serve as the launch for four publications:
Henry Roy’s new zine August is about cinematic and dreamy vision of Ibiza, where he spent his last summer holidays (and has been visiting many times since the late eighties). August is saddle stitched, black and white, and 20 pages. It retails for $8 and can be purchased at Printed Matter’s storefront in New York City or online at www.printedmatter.org.
Katerina Christidi’s C'est pas angoissant is a combination of charcoal drawings drawn from her large scale works and her series One Year Drawings. The figurative work creates tension as the artist describes “between the anxiety of existential discomfort and it’s comical response evoked by human figures.” C'est pas angoissant is saddle stitched, black and white, and 20 pages. It retails for $8 and can be purchased at Printed Matter’s storefront in New York City or online at www.printedmatter.org.
Harmony Korine’s Devils and Babies is as the title suggests, drawings of devils and babies in the artist’s characteristic brut style. Devils and Babies is saddle stitched, black and white, and 20 pages. It retails for $8 and can be purchased at Printed Matter’s storefront in New York City or online at www.printedmatter.org.
The Nieves Zine Box 2008 is produced in an extremely limited edition of 20 and contains a complete set of the zines that produced in 2008. The authors include Keegan McHargue, Beau LaBute, Mari Eastman, Geoff McFetridge, Frédéric Fleury, Reala / Körner Union, Eddie Martinez, Susan Gianciolo, Anthony Record, Tal R, Jonas Delaborde, Beni Bischof, Himaa, Rick Myers and Stefan Marx. The Nieves Zine Box 2008 retails for $250 and can be purchased at Printed Matter’s storefront in New York City or online at www.printedmatter.org.
For more 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.