Alison Knowles: Journal of the Identical Lunch (1971)

“A journalistic account of a series of performances of a single piece. The book begins with a description of ‘the identical lunch’ which consists primarily of ‘a tunafish sandwich on wheat toast with lettuce and butter, no mayo, and a large glass of buttermilk or a cup of soup.’ These were eaten ‘many days of each week at the same place and at about the same time.’ After this description, and a reproduction of a restaurant check for the same (total, with tax, $1.68, for two) there follows a series of accounts of the performance of this ‘identical lunch’ by Susan Hartung, John Giorno, Dick Higgins, Vernon Hinkle, and others. Many of these accounts have dates, some identify the place and circumstances and difficulties or rewards of the performance. The accounts are recorded in different formats – perhaps by the original performers – using typewriter, typesetting, handwriting, and so forth. The book collects records of lunches which both are and are not identical.” (Source)

First published in The Outsider, nos. 1-5.

Publisher Nova Broadcast Press, San Francisco, 1971
[68] pages
via Artists’ Books Online

PDF (36 MB)
JPGs

Wolf Vostell: Miss Vietnam (1969)

Contains “Genesis and Iconography of My Happenings”, “Miss Vietnam”, and “Hommage to Durer”.

Translated by Carl Weissner
Publisher Jan Jacob Merman / Nova Broadcast Press, San Francisco, 1969
Nova Broadcast series, 2
37 pages
via Reality Studio

PDF (6 MB)

Claes Oldenburg: Store Days: Documents from The Store, 1961, and Ray Gun Theater, 1962 (1967)

““I’d like to get away from the notion of a work of art as something outside of experience, something that is located in museums, something that is terribly precious,” Oldenburg declared. In 1961 he presented a new body of work whose subject matter he had culled from the clothing stores, delis, and bric-a-brac shops that crowded the Lower East Side. The earliest Store sculptures, which debuted in spring 1961 at the Martha Jackson Gallery, at 32 East Sixty-Ninth Street, are wall-mounted reliefs depicting everyday items like shirts, dresses, cigarettes, sausages, and slices of pie. Oldenburg made them from armatures of chicken wire overlaid with plaster-soaked canvas, using enamel paint straight from the can to give them a bright color finish. At the gallery, the reliefs hung cheek by jowl, emulating displays in low-end markets.

In December 1961, Oldenburg opened The Store in the rented storefront at 107 East Second Street that served as his studio, which he called the Ray Gun Manufacturing Company. A fully elaborated manifestation of the project that he had begun months earlier, The Store conflated two disparate types of commerce: the sale of cheap merchandise and the sale of serious art. Oldenburg packed more than one hundred objects into the modestly sized room, setting previously exhibited reliefs alongside new, primarily freestanding sculptures. Everything was available for purchase, with prices starting at $21.79 up to $499.99. After The Store closed, on January 31, 1962, Oldenburg used the space to stage a series of performances collectively titled Ray Gun Theater.” (Source)

Selected by Claes Oldenburg and Emmett Williams
Photographs by Robert R. McElroy
Publisher Something Else Press, New York, 1967
152 pages
via penfold

2013 exhibition at MoMA

WorldCat

PDF (83 MB)