Primary Information
Primary Information is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 to publish artists’ books and writings. The organization’s programming advances the often-intertwined relationship between artists’ books and arts’ activism, creating a platform for historically marginalized artistic communities and practices. Primary Information facilitates intergenerational dialogue through the simultaneous publication of new and archival books, providing a new audience for out-of-print works and historical context for contemporary artists.
Series Titles
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Open Hearing is a monumental collection of statements originally published in the wake of the first public meeting of the Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC), at the School of Visual Arts in New York on April 10, 1969. The meeting was billed as “an open public hearing […] regarding museum reform” and the establishment of a program for the AWC, in which any and all art workers were invited to “testify.” It was a consummation of the group’s inception that January, in which the urgency of its foundational concerns and its potency as a rallying point for diverse critical voices were ... -
Documents 1 is a collection of correspondence, press, and ephemera surrounding the foundation and rise of the Art Worker’s Coalition (AWC), first published at the height of the group’s activity in mid-1969. Beginning with a rallying statement from Greek sculptor Takis—whose withdrawal from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that January directly precipitated the formation of the AWC—the publication is a whirlwind tour of the flourishing group’s rapid development and expanding concerns. Alongside official statements, fliers, and lists of demands from the AWC, its offshoots, affiliates, and enemies-of-enemies—from Marcel Broodthaers to the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition—Documents 1 includes ... -
Developed through conversations with members of the art world and written with the help of lawyer Robert Projansky in 1971, Seth Siegelaub’s Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer And Sale Agreement was designed to safeguard the economic interests of artists, particularly in the case of an artwork’s resale, reproduction, or rental. Intended to serve as an accessible document for all artists, the contract was written in an easily comprehensible style and was widely distributed through art journals and magazines—characteristics shared by much of the artwork Siegelaub was currently representing. Since its publication in English, French, German, and Italian, the document has been ... -
This catalogue was published in conjunction with a group exhibition curated by Seth Siegelaub at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada in 1969. The exhibition took place throughout the university, with a number of works distributed or announced via the school’s communication’s facilities (university mail, a student newspaper, etc). As part of the exhibition, a symposium was held by way of a “conference line” telephone hook-up, with some of the participating artists calling in from Burnaby, Ottawa and New York. The catalogue was made available only after the exhibition was over. The participating artists were Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, Robert ... -
This book, also known as One Month, was organized by Seth Siegelaub and took the form of a page-a-day calendar for the month of March 1969. Siegelaub developed the book by assigning each of the 31 invited artists a specific day of the month (and its corresponding page) upon which they would construct a work. These text-based works were then collated and published by Siegelaub, leaving blank the pages assigned to artist who failed to respond. The participating artists were Carl Andre, Mike Asher, Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, Robert Barry, Rick Barthelme, Iain Baxter, James Lee Byars, John Chamberlain, Ron Cooper, Barry ... -
July, August, September 1969 was an exhibition organized by Seth Siegelaub consisting of works by eleven artists at eleven separate geographical locations. The trilingual catalogue—in English, French, and German—both documented and reproduced the diverse works, which ranged from fleeting events and performances to museum shows and open-ended environmental interventions. In each case, the respective artist was responsible for providing information on the work’s materials and design. The participating artists were Carl Andre (The Hague), Robert Barry (Baltimore), Daniel Buren (Paris), Jan Dibbets (Amsterdam), Douglas Huebler (Los Angeles), Joseph Kosuth (New Mexico), Sol LeWitt (Düsseldorf), Richard Long (Bristol, UK), N.E. Thing Co. Ltd. ... -
January 5-31, 1969 was organized by Seth Siegelaub. This publication, rather than accompanying an exhibition, functioned as the exhibition’s primary manifestation, being the only physical object on display during the show’s run. In addition to presenting images of their work, each artist (apart from Robert Barry) also supplied a brief statement on the nature of their practice. The participating artists were Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner. Seth Siegelaub (b. 1941 – 2013) was an American curator, art dealer, and author. Through his gallery, Seth Siegelaub Contemporary Art, and his later curatorial practice, Siegelaub introduced the art world to both ... -
This book exhibition—also known as the Xerox Book—was organized and published by Seth Siegelaub in 1968. Both presenting a range of artists associated with Siegelaub’s curatorial practice and utilizing unconventional modes of exhibition, this book marks ongoing attempt by Siegelaub to show work outside of the gallery setting, and his first time showing an exhibition in book form. Furthermore, Siegelaub asked each artist in the exhibition to create 25 pages of work that responded to the photocopy format. Though the Xerox process proved financially unfeasible—the works ultimately being reproduced through the more conventional printing press—the book continued to be referred ... -
“18 PARIS IV.70” was an exhibition organized by Michel Claura in Paris in 1970. Held at a temporary space on Rue Mouffetard that April, it was accompanied by this trilingual publication (in English, French, and German), edited by Claura and published and distributed by Seth Siegelaub. Claura invited a group of artists to each contribute a work to the exhibition. Having collected a series of artist proposals, Claura then sent this collection to each of the participants, after which they were allowed to change their initial plans. This publication includes a preface and a postface by Claura and a two-part entry ... -
This catalogue, organized by Seth Siegelaub, both documents the works assembled to raise money for the United States Servicemen’s Fund (USSF) as well as inaugurates the fund’s art collection. The USSF was an organization established to promote free speech within the US military and was heavily engaged in anti-Vietnam War activity through both the funding and support of independent GI newspapers as well as various cultural actions and events. It also worked to defend the legal rights of GIs. Participating artists include Keith Sonnier, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson, Robert Murray, Robert Huot, David Diao, Gene Davis, Al Held, Robert Ryman, Alex ... -
IRL takes the form of a mood board wrapper with an interview inside. “JEQU: When artists reject the mandate to be “critical”, they sometimes do so because it is perceived to inhibit their right to sell work and participate in the market system with a clear conscience. They think they are thus defending their right to “live well.” One strategy often employed is that of the artist who spends the first part of his or her career outside of this system in order to build avant-gardist credibility, and then later chooses at a certain point to participate in the traditional market/gallery ... -
“How to Make a Happening” is a lecture by Allan Kaprow from the mid-1960s. Originally conceived for publication as an LP, the text is accordingly arranged in two parts. Kaprow first lays out eleven rules for the Happening, which is framed as a kind of open-ended performance whose goal is a decisive break from all established cultural forms—a break to be positively embodied by the Happening itself—before going on to describe several Happenings at length, by way of example. “The point is to make something new,” says Kaprow, “something that doesn’t even remotely remind you of culture.” Yet the lecture is ... -
An Anti-Catalog was the work of the Catalog Committee of the group Artists Meeting for Cultural Change (AMCC). A landmark publication of the 1970s, its purpose was to protest the Whitney Museum of American Art’s bicentennial exhibition, which was titled “Three Centuries of American Art.” The Whitney show featured John D. Rockefeller III’s collection of mainly eighteenth and nineteenth-century American art–a collection that featured only one African American and one woman artist. The Catalog Committee, which consisted of fifteen artists and two art historians, spent almost a year producing an eighty-page book containing articles and documents. Originally conceived as a critique ... -
The Early History of Avalanche chronicles the conception and production of Avalanche magazine between 1968-1972, as well as the artistic milieu from which it emerged and to which it bore unsurpassed witness, through a tapestry of firsthand accounts. Founding editors Liza Bear and Willoughby Sharp describe the magazine’s production in detail (the period in question saw the publication of its first six issues) and critically reflect on the artistic trends and movements of the time, to which their legendary publication was devoted and to which it served as a vital outlet. Described by its creators as “a cross between a ... -
Primary Information and From The Nursery are pleased to announce their first collaborative release, an album by XXX MACARENA, a band comprised of Tony Conrad on violin, Jutta Koether on synthesizer, and John Miller on guitar. XXX MACARENA was recorded live at the Kunsthalle Zurich in June 2009. The performance is an entirely improvised 42-minute piece that ranges from microscopic detail to seismic wall-of-sound, full of intensities and introspection; a composition in-the-moment — like a crime, understood as somehow both premeditated and a matter of chance.
