Despite having been active for only four years before passing away at the young age of twenty-four, Christopher D’Arcangelo (1955–1979) is a key, though lesser-known, figure of 1970s Institutional Critique in New York City. Even generations later, D’Arcangelo’s singular approach remains wholly unique in its radicality and generosity. This first estate-approved monograph illuminates his momentous practice after many decades of limited access to the materials surrounding it.

The publication also includes new contributions from figures who have punctuated D’Arcangelo’s practice—such as Peter Nadin, Daniel Buren, Louise Lawler and Janelle Reiring—as well as photographic contributions by artist Heji Shin and a new text by Nicholas Martin.

Canonically Speaking is the second title to appear on the First Drafts imprint, a zigzag in Kunstverein Publishing’s output that’s dedicated to publishing completed manuscripts that would otherwise, for an array of reasons, not see the light of day in this rough early form.

Central to Canonically Speaking is the idea that (female) life is an inherently surrealist experience. In this spirit, the ‘absurd’ is embraced as a means to speak out on themes such as self-image, spirituality, mental health and work. While slipping between poetry, comprehensive list-making, knock knock jokes and intertextual references, forms of recital and misinterpretation often take place, whereby characters quote and repeat sentences and words from a large variety of sources, jumping from the health benefits of whale blubber to court transcripts of Bill Clinton's impeachment to the plasma that is released when microwaving two grapes side by side.

In 1971, Michael Morris and Vincent Tarsov—founders of the Vancouver-based artist network Image Bank—invited Eric Metcalfe, Gary Lee Nova, Glenn Lewis and Paul Oberst to create their own, unique alphabet. NowForty years later, with the permission of the participating artists and the help of Image Bank, these historic silk-screened alphabets have finally been published together. The Alphabet Book is designed by Marc Hollenstein, who was inspired to reinitiate the alphabet publication project after having a conversation with Glenn Lewis during the opening of Lewis’ retrospective exhibition at Kunstverein back in 2014.

This is the reissue of the long out-of-print publication GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969–1976: A Selection, first published in 1978.

The book serves as the primary text to the significant work of the activist artist group GAAG (Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, Virginia Toche and Jean Toche), both as a document of the group’s ideological and logistical concerns, and more broadly as a historical record for fifty-two of the many political art actions they carried out through the late 60s and early 70s.

Tense is a never-realised publication, written and composed by Lucy Lippard and Jerry Kearns in 1984, that only now has been released in a very limited run on our imprint. The book accompanied the exhibition Top Stories, which took a closer look at the 29 issues of the prose periodical with the same title, founded in the late 1970s by Anne Turyn.

Top Stories was dedicated to fiction by emerging women artists and writers from that time. Tense was originally intended to become part of the series as well, but never made it to print. It was only recently – during the making of the exhibition at Amsterdam’s Kunstverein – that the original mock-up was retrieved from the editor’s archives and finally sent off to the printer.

She gave it to me I got it from her—a poem that choreographs her hands and voice—her voice that reads out loud the book—becoming script—becoming performance—becoming archive — the permanence of her voice in the book—in the book—the presence and absence of their names—She gave it to me I got it from her—It's a book and a choreography, read out loud and handled by a performer, for a group of people.

Clara Amaral is an artist working with text and performance. Her artistic practice is situated in an interdisciplinary perspective, questioning what it means to be a reader, to be a writer, aiming to expand existing modes of reading and writing. Central to her practice is the investigation of innovative publishing modalities and the performative aspect of writing and language through an intersectional feminist approach. www.misted.cc

Written and choreographed by Clara Amaral
Graphic Design Ronja Andersen and Karoline Swiezynski
Copy editor Isabelle Sully
Conceptualization and fabrication of objects Olga Micińska in dialogue with Clara Amaral
Published by Kunstverein Publishing

Tense is a never-realised publication, written and composed by Lucy Lippard and Jerry Kearns in 1984, that only now has been released in a very limited run on our imprint. The book accompanied the exhibition Top Stories, which took a closer look at the 29 issues of the prose periodical with the same title, founded in the late 1970s by Anne Turyn. Top Stories was dedicated to fiction by emerging women artists and writers from that time. Tense was originally intended to become part of the series as well, but never made it to print. It was only recently – during the making of the exhibition at Amsterdam’s Kunstverein – that the original mock-up was retrieved from the editor’s archives and finally sent off to the printer.

40 p, ills colour & bw, 13 x 21 cm, pb, English

Six years in the making, 'BLOOD' is the first comprehensive English translation of the poems of Danish art historian, communist activist, and writer R. Broby-Johansen.

Translated, edited, and designed by Line-Gry Hørup, Broby-Johansen’s poems are accompanied by a series of full colour photographs by Amsterdam photographer Johannes Schwartz, which document the pair’s trip to Brody-Johansen’s recently established archive. So recent, that they were in fact the first to view it. 'BLOOD' was made possible with the support of Stimuleringsfonds and the Danish Arts Foundation.

For '​A Studio in Hand-Reading: Charlotte Wolff'​ Valentina Desideri transformed Kunstverein’s space into a Studio – a place that generates knowledge through different modes of being together. Throughout the exhibition, Desideri invited participants as well as visitors to gather for readings and in study.

The Studio – and its bar – were open for readings during Kunstverein’s regular opening hours and punctuated by weekly contributions to the study by the invited guests and artists. 'Handreading Studies​' picks up where the project left off, bringing together a variety of materials and publications that were generated in or reverberated from the Studio.