Critical anthology of pivotal texts edited by Gregory Battcock. Essays "Monuments for Nowhere or Anywhere," by Dore Ashton; " "Art in the Service of the Left?," by Battcock; "The Relevance of Ecology," by Jonathan Benthall; "The Fake as More," by Cheryl Bernstein; "Problems of Criticism," by Jack Burnham; "Art After Philosopy, I and II," by Joseph Kosuth; "The Art Workers' Coalition," by Lucy Lippard; "The Eruption of Anti-Art," by Ursula Meyer; "It's Only Words," by John Perreault; "Four Interviews," Arthur Rose [Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner]; "Art and Words," by Harold Rosenberg; "On Exhibitions and the World at Large: A Conversation with Seth Siegelaub"; "Documentation in Conceptual Art," by Lawrence Weiner, Daniel Buren, Mel Bochner, and Sol LeWitt; "The Decline and Fall of the Avant-Garde," by Robert Hughes; and "Les Levine Replies," by Les Levine. "By 1970 it was clear that a new type of art was emerging in the New York and European art worlds. Quickly labeled Conceptual Art or Idea Art, the form encompassed an extraordinary variety of works. What they all seemed to have in common was a rejection of the 'bourgeois' aspects of traditional art. Works of Idea Art frequently did not actually exist as objects. Rather, the remained ideas; often, what did exist was only some kind of documentation referring to the concept. The chief purpose of this anthology is to present in a direct way some of the action, diversity, and rationale behind Idea Art. And it attempts to do so by presenting the students and educator with some of the original and important theoretical documents that helped set the direction of the new artistic emphasis." -- from book's back cover.