Announcing the Specific Object 2011 Publication of the Year Award Given to Martha Wilson for Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces
Specific Object is pleased to announce that our judges have named
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces, by Martha Wilson and published by Independent Curators International [ICI], the Specific Object 2011 Publication of the Year.
As the book's title implies
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces is a definitive history of the evolution of, not just one woman's 40 year history in the "alternative arts" movement, but a broader contextualization of the transformation and ascent of a generation that succeeded in tuning art on a sharp, often politically motivated, shift that give rise to
relational aesthetics imbibed artists.
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces, designed by Scott Ponik, includes rare documents and excerpts of landmark publications that influenced Wilson and her approach to activism and art, not only providing the reader with insight into her own practice, but also a unique lens through which to look at the last forty years of contestations in feminism, performance, and the alternative space movement in the United States. According to Kate Fowle, Executive Director of ICI, "Reading Sourcebook is like getting to know Wilson as a curator would, providing the opportunity to spend time understanding the context through which her practice has evolved and the influences that inform its trajectory."
Specific Object's judges were unanimous in their belief that
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces defines excellence in execution from the book's title, to content, to a demonstration of what Martha Wilson has excelled at over the course of her pioneering work championing performance, feminism, and her tireless dedication to the development and advocating for alternative spaces since 1976 when she founded Franklin Furnace.
In addition to
Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces, the judges also wish to acknowledge three additional outstanding publications for 2011 from the over 450 submitted titles:
Developing Patterns, an artist's book by Anna Craycroft, published by Evil Twin Books.
All I Remember, an artist's book by Elisabetta Benassi, published by Nero.
Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art, by Gwen Allen, published by The MIT Press.
About the Specific Object Publication of the Year Award
Since 2004 Specific Object has selected a Specific Object Publication
of the Year. The winner of the 2004 Specific Object Publication of the
Year Award was Jonathan Monk for his book
Cover Version, published by
Book Works U.K.; the winner for 2005 was Philippe Parreno's
Fade to Black, published by mfc-Michèle Didier; 2006's award was presented to
0 TO 9 : Limited Facsimile Edition by Vito Acconci & Bernadette Mayer
as part of the Ugly Duckling Presse / Lost Literature Series; 2007's
award was presented to
Esopus magazine; and the 2008 award winner was
The Mug by Sarah Lucas and Olivier Garbay, published by Other
Criteria. The 2009 winner was
Orchard Spreadsheet by R.H.Quaytman, published by MER. Paper Kunsthalle. The 2010 winner was Josh Smith and Todd Amicon for
A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST : Dakis Joannou Collection.
About Specific Object
Specific Object is a gallery, bookstore and website based in New York
City.
Specifically, Specific Object is an attempt to isolate distinct works
of value - historically, monetarily and / or personally valuable - and
show them in an isolated context without the artifice of visual
confusion or clutter in hopes of allowing these works, or objects,
their own place, space and time. The materials shown range from
artists' publications, ephemera, prints, multiples and other editions
to literature, music / audio works and unique artworks of the
contemporary world.
From 1998 through 2004 Platzker was the Executive Director of the
non-profit institution Printed Matter, Inc. He is also the co-author,
and co-curator - with Elizabeth Wyckoff - of
Hard Pressed: 600 Years
of Prints and Process (International Print Center New York & Hudson
Hills Press, 2000); and - with Richard H. Asxom - the book and
exhibition entitled
Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg: A Catalogue Raisonné 1958-1996 (Madison Art Center & Hudson Hills Press, 1997), which was awarded the George Wittenborn
Award for Best Art Publication of 1997 by the Art Libraries Society of
North America. Platzker has also curated exhibitions of the works of
John Baldessari, Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Oldenburg,
Dieter Roth, and Edward Ruscha in addition to commissioning or curating
exhibitions at Printed Matter of Angelblood, Larry Clark, Erin
Cosgrove, Meg Cranston, General Idea, Jenny Holzer, Reverend Jen, Allan
Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Ryan McGinness, Sonic Youth, Tom Sachs, David
Tremlett, Richard Tuttle and the Guerrilla Girls.
Specific Object is located at 601 West 26th Street / Floor 2M / Room
M285, New York, NY 10001. Telephone (212) 242-6253.
For more information regarding Specific Object please visit its
website: www.specificobject.com or email
[email protected]
This press release is archived at:
www.specificobject.com/projects/2011_Award
