Mail art

Also postal art, correspondence art.

Pages

• Valdis Āboliņš
• Art and Project
• Artpool
• Anna Banana
• Paulo Bruscky
• Cactus Network
• Ulises Carrión
• Tony Credland
• Ephemera
• Robert Filliou
• Ken Friedman
• Klaus Groh
• Judith Hoffberg
• Pete Horobin
• Ray Johnson
• Istvan Kantor
• Milan Knížák
• J.H. Kocman
• Marek Konieczny
• Brigitta Milde
• Omaha Flow Systems
• Ewa Partum
• Géza Perneczky
• Paweł Petasz
• Ivan Preissler
• Karla Sachse
• Semina
• Shōzō Shimamoto
• TENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
• Endre Tót
• Jiří Valoch
• Edgardo Antonio Vigo
• Lutz Wohlrab
• Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt
• David Zack

Magazines and Journals

• File, ed. General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz & Jorge Zontal), Toronto, 1972-89.
• Vile, eds. Anna Banana and Bill Gaglione, San Francisco, 1974-83. [1]
• Ephemera: a monthly journal of mail and ephemeral works, 12 issues, eds. Ulises Carrión, Aart van Barneveld and Salvador Flores, Amsterdam: Other Books and So, 1977-78.
• Commonpress, c48 numbers, eds. Pawel Petasz et al., 1977-90. Issues: #1, #3 #5, #6, #8, and many others available via Lomholt Mail Art Archive.
• Umbrella, ed. Judith Hoffberg, 1978-2008. The journal covered news and reviews of artists' books, mail art and contemporary art and photography tradebooks.
  • Umbrella: The Anthology, 1978-1998, ed. Judith A. Hoffberg, Santa Monica, CA: Umbrella Editions, 1999, 164 pp.
• PhotoStatic; Retrofuturism; Psrf magazines, 1983-1998.
• Yawn: Art Strike 1990-1993, 45 numbers, 1989-1992.
• Gwen Allen, "The Magazine as Mirror: FILE, 1979-1994", in Artists’ Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art, MIT Press, 2011, pp 147-173.

Archives, Resources

• Artpool, incl. Mail Art Chronology
• Lomholt Mail Art Archive, works from 1970-85, Odder/Denmark.
• Mail Artists Index, biographies, works and links of representative mail artists, ed. Lutz Wohlrab.
• Mogens Otto Nielsen mail art archive, Aalborg (site no longer live).
• Mail art collection at U Buffalo
• Electronic Museum of Mail Art (EMMA), maintained by Chuck Welch.
• Poema Colectivo: Revolución and the International Mail Art Network, Mauricio Marcin in collaboration with Zanna Gilbert
• Ray Johnson Estate: Mail Art and Ephemera
• Oberlin College Mail Art Collection

Publications

Chuck Welch (ed.), Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology, 1995, PDF, Log.

• Jean-Marc Poinsot, Mail Art. Communication à distance, Paris: Cedic, 1971. (French)
• Thomas Albright, "New Art School: Correspondence", Rolling Stone 106, 13 Apr 1972, p 32.
• Thomas Albright, "Correspondence Art", Rolling Stone 107, 27 Apr 1972, p 28.
• David Zack, "An Authentik and Historikal Discourse on the Phenomenon of Mail Art", Art in America, Jan-Feb 1973. [2]
• Ken Friedman, "Flowing in Omaha", Art and Artists, London, Aug 1973.
• Hervé Fischer, Art et communication marginale: tampons d'artistes / Art and Marginal Communication: Rubber Art, Stamp Activity / Kunst und Randkommunikation: Kunstlers Stempelmarken, Paris: Balland, 1974, 243 pp. (French)/(English)/(German)
• Kunst per post. Mail Art, ed. G.J. de Rook, Utrecht, 1976, [17] pp. (Dutch)/(English)
• Edward M. Plunkett, Lawrence Alloway, John Russell, Suzi Gablik, William S. Wilson, Henry Martin, Robert Pincus-Witten, Karen Shaw, Robert Rosenblum, Lucy R. Lippard, Tommy Mew, Toby R. Spiselman, "Send Letters, Postcards, Drawings, and Objects ...", Art Journal 36 (Spring 1977), pp 233-241.
• Mantua Mail 1978, eds. Romano Peli and Michaela Varsari, Mantova, Italy: Assessorato Cultura Comune di Mantova, 1978, 198 pp. Catalogue. Essays by Ken Friedman, Mike Crane, Hervé Fischer, et al.
• Giovanni Lista, L'Art postal futuriste, Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1979. (French)

• Ulises Carrión, Second Thoughts, Amsterdam: VOID, 1980, 72 pp.
• Stempelkunst in Nederland, ed. Aart van Barneveld, intro. Ulises Carrión, Amsterdam: Stempelplaats, 1980, [78] pp. (Dutch)/(English)
• Delo 26(2): "Mail art, mail poetry. Poštanska umetnost, poštanska poezija", ed. Muharem Pervić, Belgrade: Nolit, Feb 1980. [3] (Serbo-Croatian)
• The Franklin Furnace Flue 4(3-4): "Mail Art Then and Now", Winter 1984.
  • Ken Friedman, "Mail Art History: The Fluxus Factor", pp 18-24.
• Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Activity, eds. Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet, San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1984. [4]
• Stefan Szczelkun (ed.), Post Art 1, London: Routine Art Co, 1985, [18] pp, PDF. Booklet of mail art documentation.
• Stewart Home, "Mail Art", "Beyond Mail Art", chs 13-14 in Home, The Assault on Culture: Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War, London: Aporia Press and Unpopular Books, 1988, 115 pp; 2nd ed., AK Press, 1991, 128 pp. (English)
  • translations
• Hand of the Spirit: Documents of the Seventies from the Morris/Trasov Archive, ed. Scott Watson, Vancouver: UBC Fine Arts Gallery, 1992, 47 pp. Catalogue. [5] [6]
• Géza Perneczky, The Magazine Network: The Trends of Alternative Art in the Light of Their Periodicals 1968-1988, Cologne: Soft Geometry, 1993, 285 pp.
• Profil 3-4: "Mail art", eds. Jaroslav Supek and Michal Murin, Bratislava: Kruh, 1994. (Slovak)
• The Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology, ed. Chuck Welch, University of Calgary Press, 1995, xxiii+304 pp.
  • Ken Friedman, "The Early Days of Mail Art: An Historical Overview".
• Mail Art: Osteuropa im Internationelen Netzwerk, ed. Kornelia von Berswordt-Wallrabe, forew. Kornelia von Verswordt-Wallrabe and László Beke, Schwerin: Staatliches Museum, 1996, 126 pp. Exh. held 21 Jul-15 Aug 1996. [7] (German),(English)
• Mail Art. Kelet-Európa a nemzetközi hálózatban, ed. László Beke, Budapest: Műcsarnok, 1998, 72 p. [8] (Hungarian)
• John Held Jr., "Bay Area Dada: Before Punk and Zines", c1999.
• Mark Pawson, "The Mailart Network; Communication, Participation, Play", Variant 7 (Winter 1998/Spring 1999), pp 9-12.
• Arthur C. Danto, "Correspondance School Art", Nation, 29 Mar 1999, pp 30-34.

• Géza Perneczky, Network Atlas: Worls and Publications by the People of the First Network. A Historical Atlas for the Post-Fluxus Movements as Mail Art, Visual Poetry, Copy Art, Stamp Art & Other Relative Trends with Addresses, Projects, Publications & Exhibition Events, Volume 1: A-N, Volume 2: O-Z, Cologne, 2003. Unedited manuscript.
• Tusa Shea, Representing the Eternal Network: Vancouver Artists' Publications, 1969-73, University of Victoria, 2004. Thesis.
• John Held Jr., "The Mail Art Exhibition: Personal Worlds to Cultural Strategies", in At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, eds. Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark, MIT Press, 2005, pp 88-114.
• Craig Saper, "Networked Psychoanalysis: A Dialogue with Anna Freud Banana", in At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, eds. Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark, MIT Press, 2005, pp 246-258
• Simone Osthoff, "From Mail Art to Telepresence: Communication at a Distance in the Works of Paulo Bruscky and Eduardo Kac", in At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, eds. Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark, MIT Press, 2005, pp 260-280.
• Emily Robertson, The Evolution of Mail Art in Canada, Montreal: Concordia University, 2007. Dissertation.
• Marie Boivent, "Un art 'délivré'. Sur quelques utilisations du service postal depuis les années 1960", Marges 8, 2008, pp 51-69. (French)
• Seeta Peña Gangadharan, "Mail Art: Networking Without Technology", New Media & Society 11:1-2, 2009, pp 279-298.

• Franziska Dittert, Mail Art in der DDR. Eine intermediale Subkultur im Kontext der Avantgarde, Berlin: Logos, 2010. [9] (German)
• ARTMargins 1(2-3): "Artists' Networks in Latin America and Eastern Europe", eds. Klara Kemp-Welch and Cristina Freire, MIT Press, Jun-Oct 2012. [10]
• 1962-2012: 50 Years of Mail Art, Mail Art Museum of Montecarotto, 2012, 60 pp. Catalogue. (Italian),(English)
• Rinus van Alebeek, "The Early Years", Staalzine 2 (2013), Berlin.
• Peter van der Meijden, "Box Boxing Boxers. Mail Art Projects, Exhibitions and Archives", 2014. An introduction to the Lomholt Mail Art Archive.
• Laura Dunkin-Hubby, Networking and Craft in Three Generations of Mail Art, San José State University, 2014. Master's thesis.
• Zanna Gilbert, "Genealogical Diversions: Experimental Poetry Networks, Mail Art and Conceptualisms", En caiana. Revista de Historia del Arte y Cultura Visual del Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte (CAIA) 4, 2014.
• Kornelia Röder, "Ray Johnson and the Mail Art Scene in Eastern Europe", kunsttexte.de/ostblick 3: "Mythmaking Eastern Europe: Art in Response", ed. Mateusz Kapustka, 2014. [11]
• Außer Kontrolle! Farbgrafik und Mail Art in der DDR / Out of Control! Colour Prints and Mail Art in the GDR, eds. Paul Kaiser, Christina May and Kornelia Röder, Cologne: Walther Koenig, and Schwerin: Staatliches Museum, 2015, 256 pp. Catalogue. [12] [13] (German)/(English)
• Keep Art Flat! Mail Art and the Political 1970s, Copenhagen: Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2016. Catalogue for exh. held 15 Sep-6 Nov 2016; selection of ~250 works from the Lomholt Mail Art Archive. Introduction, Welch's essay, other essays. [14]
• Stephen Moonie, "A Poet of “Non-ressentiment”? Lawrence Alloway, Ray Johnson, and the Art World as a Network", Getty Research Journal 8, 2016, pp 161-176.
• Revista ARTA 32: "Mail Art", ed. Dan Mihălțianu, Bucharest: Revista Arta, 2018. Excerpt. [15] (Romanian)/(English)
• Colby Chamberlain, "International Indeterminacy: George Maciunas and the Mail", ARTMargins 7:3, Oct 2018, pp 57-85. [16]

• Mark Bloch, "A Brief History of Postal Art", n.d.
• Mail art at Wikipedia

Bibliographies

• John Held Jr., Mail Art: an Annotated Bibliography, Metuchen, NJ and London: Scarecrow Press, 1991, 582 pp. [17]. Review: Stahl (Art Doc).
• Bibliography at Mail Artists Index
• From Wikipedia

See also

Fluxus, Zine culture, Cassette culture, Neoism.

Links

• Analog Network: Mail Art 1960-1999, online companion to 2014 exhibition at MoMA