Bici Hendricks.
Statement of Aims and Purposes of The Black Thumb Press.
New York: Black Thumb Press, 1966.
Staple-bound softcover.
7 pages.
Very good.
Light toning and creasing to covers.
A manifesto written by Bici Hendricks now known as Nye Ffarrabas.
The Black Thumb Press was founded by Bici Forbes Hendricks
and her then husband Geoff Hendricks in 1965.
Her poetic word-based conceptual art “books” such as Punctuation Poems
& Language Box were published as well as instructional “curricula” and manifestos.
Both continued to use the name for their respective publishing activites even after their “Flux-Divorce” in 1971, though Geoff Hendricks later founded the Money for Food Press. The scores, instructions, and manifestos published by The Black Thumb Press are all scarce examples of an under-known female Fluxus artist.
"Perception is always the same: we can only hope to provide
new terms for its attainment until at last we realize that we are
continually seeing glimpses of the same monkey through an
infinite number of peep-holes. That realization is beauty,
and it is always a shock.
It is our belief that that shock is a privilege -
A coming alive that doesn't have a damn thing to do with
the Pepsi generation or with any other special interest group.
By the same token, staying alive -
through surprise, acceptance of change, skepticism, honesty,
and decent irreverence
- is a duty commanded by the most profound basic reverence
of the truly free.
bfh,
new york
june 1966".
