THE RIFFS AND THE FOREST

Staffan Boije af GennКs Listening to Bathory’s album Under the Sign of the Black Mark, this third Social Life of a Record is an investigation into the origins of the black metal sound and its impact. In conversation with the guitarist Jon Albjerg Ravnholt, writer and critic Staffan Boije af Gennäs discuss the outcome of […]

Contre-Histoire de la Séparation

The book Counter History of Separation is based on the eponymous film by Etienne Chambaud and Vincent Normand (52min, 2010), which it translates in the space of the book. The voice-over in the film has been made into a one-edition book, which was rephotographed according to the technique the authors used to make the film. […]

Nazi Knife – Puro Ódio

Started as a xerox zine, a saturated compilation of drawings done by amateurs, musicians or comics authors, Nazi Knife explored, in its more recent issues, some more singular editorial approaches: the publication seen as a library, as a collection of motley elements, where raw materials, symbolic references or cultural products could be combined, or as […]

SOLEIL POLITIQUE

Soleil politique is a book conceived by curator Pierre-Bal Blanc, in dialogue with graphic designers Vier5 and Paraguay; it dwells on the exhibition that he organized at Museion Bolzano in 2014. In Soleil politique, Pierre Bal-Blanc, the former director of CAC Bretigny and now a member of the curatorial team of documenta14, examines the exhibition’s […]

THE HORRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT CASTILLO/CORRALES

Friday December 11, from 9pm until (very) late. castillo/corrales is calling it quits! It’s not our well-known love for alliterations that prompts us to write this. This is real. After more than eight years of collaborative work, which, at times, has united a group of almost a dozen active members, the moment has come for […]

“CRUMPLED, RUMPLED, CRAPPY, TACKY, RAUNCHY, UNCONSCIOUS, WHATEVER.”

James Hoff An artist, a musician, and a publisher based in Brooklyn, NY, James Hoff tells here how books got him into art. He considers the complex and stimulating fabric of anecdotes, gossip, secrets, that are shared around artists’ publications, and, further, the role of printed matter in the building of an artists community. The […]

DIE TOILETTE

Jon Bywater, Louise Menzies et Marnie Slater (d’après Chris Kraus) Cinquième livret de la série The Social Life of the Book, Die Toilette est un texte construit “d’après” la lecture de Chris Kraus: soit un montage de fragments issus de différents romans de l’écrivaine américaine – tous inédits en français – conçu et annoté par trois […]

LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE D’HELEN CHADWICK

Ce livret donne accès à une partie du catalogue de la bibliothèque personnelle de l’artiste Helen Chadwick, reproduit par Will Holder …aux mères célibataires. En 2006, dix ans après le décès prématuré de Chadwick, The Henry Moore Institute a fait l’acquisition de ses livres, et en a réalisé l’archivage. Cette liste d’essais, de revues, de […]

COMPOSITION AS PUBLICATION – AND – WHAT ARE MARGINS

Matthew Stadler An important inspirer of this Social Life of the Book series, Matthew Stadler is relentlessly challenging preconceived ideas of publishing and the book, in his own writings, lectures, and publishing activities. In this new essay, he’s examining the political dimensions of the book, through an unexpected, yet fertile, comparison between today and the […]

MONOSTICHES/ONE-LINE POEMS

Monostiches/One-line Poems is a publication conceived by Emmanuel Hocquard and Claude Royet-Journoud in 1981, originally published in 1986 by Raquel, in the first issue of the journal she was the editor of, Notes. It gathers more than 100 poems—original for most of them—written mainly in French or English, all only one sentence-long (plus a title). […]