Crane, Michael & Stofflet, Mary (Editors) - Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity

Michael Crane & Mary Stofflet (Editors).

Correspondence Art:

Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity.

San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1984.

Softcover.

522 pages. 

Very good.

Edgewear, creasing, and old price tags. 

This long out-of-print anthology, edited by Mary Stofflet and Michael Crane and published in 1984, is the authoritative work on correspondence art. This anthology was compiled during the peak of correspondence art activity, with contributions from many of the medium’s major players. Contributors: Ken Friedman, Dick Higgins, Ulises Carrion, Judith A. Hoffberg, Marily Ekdahl Ravicz, Jean-Marc Poinsot, Thomas Cassidy, Milan Knizak, Klaus Groh, Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Richard Craven, A.M. Fine, Tomas Schmit, Thomas Albright, Anna Banana, Andrzej Partum, Stephan Kukowski, Robert Reehfeldt, Steve Hitchcock, Edgardo-Antonio Vigo, Geoffrey Cook, Gaglione 1940-2040, C.E. Loeffler, Ken Friedman, Georg M. Gugelberger, James Warren Felter, and Peter Frank.

“Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity is the first major anthology to document primary activity and literature on the subject of correspondence art. It is the second volume in the series, Contemporary Documents, devoted to the examination of post-modern theories and activities. Correspondence Artincludes essays by leading artists and historians in the field, statements by major artists, numerous illustrations of artworks, bibliography, and appendices (including a glossary to the multitude of aliases used by artists in the network). The anthology is divided into four sections: definition, origins, emergence, and exhibitions and publications.

Correspondence art, an ongoing artists’ communication system, includes participants throughout the world who have formed an international postal network to exchange art information and original artworks. First used sporadically by the Dada and Futurist artists in the early twentieth century, correspondence art has expanded since the 1950s to become a major international art activity. Artists involved in correspondence use a variety of means to send art through the mails, including artist-produced postcards, postage stamps, broadsides, “zines,” drawings, collage, rubber stamps, found images, and color xerox. As a contemporary art activity based on the interactive flow of ideas and information, correspondence artists have produced an abundance of materials which are basic to their art exchange.

Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity is the first comprehensive anthology to offer an historical overview as well as primary documentation and artworks produced by artists. Correspondence Art is an indispensable source book for artists, educators, students, and researchers interested in major forms of contemporary art.”