Martha Wilson wrote this Introduction for Franklin Furnace's The Flue magazine of Winter 1983 in a Special Issue on Artists' Books, Archives and Collections.
I am writing this introduction to acquaint you with the reasons I founded Franklin Furnace in 1976. First, let me digress a bit to tell you I had been practicing my artwork in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, which took the forms of publications, video, performance, film, and written articles. My boyfriend and I received the Art & Project bulletins from Amsterdam and bought Gilbert & George books, Larry Weiner's Statements, and Something Else Press works as well as works by other Conceptualists such as Dan Graham, Doug Huebler, and Robert Barry, in order to understand what was happening in contemporary art from our perch in the Far North. When I moved to New York in 1974, I met many other artists such as Marcia Resnick, Athena Tacha, Jenny Snider, Conrad Gleber, Gail Rubini, Tim Burns, Leslie Schiff, artists who lived in New York and elsewhere, who chose to publish their work, or at least chose publication as a suitable format for some of their work. I figured if 1 knew offhand about fifty artists whose work took the form of publication, there must be 500 or so works out there which could be gathered together for a bookstore and permanent collection to draw further attention to this field. At this time, all the major museums in New York were actively ignoring the field of artists' publishing it seemed to me; after the Information show at MOMA, the bookstore took on the publications, for a short period, of the artists who were in the show: Lawrence Werner, Richards Jarden, Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Gerald Ferguson; and Barbara London was acquiring works for MOMA that later appeared in the "Bookworks" exhibition pre¬sented there in 1977. But by and large, the prospect of sales and distribution of artists' publications was grim in 1976, and exhibition of these works was rare. Franklin Furnace was founded to fill a gaping hole in the artworld which no other existing organization was filling adequately. I had no inkling at this time of the tremendous scope and international participation by thousands of artists in publishing activity.
Early in 1976, I wrote to all the artists on the 112 Greene Street Workshop list to ask if they had pub¬lished works to consign and donate to an organization that would both sell and preserve these works. Franklin Furnace Bookstore and Archives opened its doors on April 3, 1976, with about 200 works strewn on trestle tables and protected with plastic slipcases for the public to browse through and purchase. At the same time that I was sanding a patch of floor in
the front of 112 Franklin Street to prepare for this opening, Printed Matter, Inc. was being formed by a collective of artists and individuals who wanted to publish titles by artists and distribute them as well. Franklin Furnace and Printed Matter, Inc held many powwows between April and June, at the end of which time these two young organizations agreed to divide the pie along the profit and non-profit lines that distinguished them: Printed Matter incorporated as a profit institution to both publish and sell artists' books, and Franklin Furnace Archives, Inc. retained its non-profit status as a permanent collection for artists' books and an exhibition space for other text-related and book-related activities such as installation art, one-of-a-kind books, and performance art. Today, Franklin Furnace's permanent collection, exhi¬bition and performance programs have grown, but its original purposes remain unchanged: To collect any published item by an artist and archivally preserve it for future research by artists, art historians, collectors, curators, art educators, librarians, other professionals, and members of the general public.
Martha Wilson
I am writing this introduction to acquaint you with the reasons I founded Franklin Furnace in 1976. First, let me digress a bit to tell you I had been practicing my artwork in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, which took the forms of publications, video, performance, film, and written articles. My boyfriend and I received the Art & Project bulletins from Amsterdam and bought Gilbert & George books, Larry Weiner's Statements, and Something Else Press works as well as works by other Conceptualists such as Dan Graham, Doug Huebler, and Robert Barry, in order to understand what was happening in contemporary art from our perch in the Far North. When I moved to New York in 1974, I met many other artists such as Marcia Resnick, Athena Tacha, Jenny Snider, Conrad Gleber, Gail Rubini, Tim Burns, Leslie Schiff, artists who lived in New York and elsewhere, who chose to publish their work, or at least chose publication as a suitable format for some of their work. I figured if 1 knew offhand about fifty artists whose work took the form of publication, there must be 500 or so works out there which could be gathered together for a bookstore and permanent collection to draw further attention to this field. At this time, all the major museums in New York were actively ignoring the field of artists' publishing it seemed to me; after the Information show at MOMA, the bookstore took on the publications, for a short period, of the artists who were in the show: Lawrence Werner, Richards Jarden, Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Gerald Ferguson; and Barbara London was acquiring works for MOMA that later appeared in the "Bookworks" exhibition pre¬sented there in 1977. But by and large, the prospect of sales and distribution of artists' publications was grim in 1976, and exhibition of these works was rare. Franklin Furnace was founded to fill a gaping hole in the artworld which no other existing organization was filling adequately. I had no inkling at this time of the tremendous scope and international participation by thousands of artists in publishing activity.
Early in 1976, I wrote to all the artists on the 112 Greene Street Workshop list to ask if they had pub¬lished works to consign and donate to an organization that would both sell and preserve these works. Franklin Furnace Bookstore and Archives opened its doors on April 3, 1976, with about 200 works strewn on trestle tables and protected with plastic slipcases for the public to browse through and purchase. At the same time that I was sanding a patch of floor in
the front of 112 Franklin Street to prepare for this opening, Printed Matter, Inc. was being formed by a collective of artists and individuals who wanted to publish titles by artists and distribute them as well. Franklin Furnace and Printed Matter, Inc held many powwows between April and June, at the end of which time these two young organizations agreed to divide the pie along the profit and non-profit lines that distinguished them: Printed Matter incorporated as a profit institution to both publish and sell artists' books, and Franklin Furnace Archives, Inc. retained its non-profit status as a permanent collection for artists' books and an exhibition space for other text-related and book-related activities such as installation art, one-of-a-kind books, and performance art. Today, Franklin Furnace's permanent collection, exhi¬bition and performance programs have grown, but its original purposes remain unchanged: To collect any published item by an artist and archivally preserve it for future research by artists, art historians, collectors, curators, art educators, librarians, other professionals, and members of the general public.
Martha Wilson
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