Guy Debord, Asger Jorn: Mémoires (1958–) [French, English]

Mémoires [Memories] is the second of their two collaborative books made by Asger Jorn and Guy Debord whilst they were both members of the Situationist International.

“The pages consist of phrases, photos, drawings and cartoons that Debord cut out of other works, and then pasted up in a randomly suggestive manner. Debord then had Jorn taint these ‘prefabricated elements’ with paint. The colors suggest possible readings of the phrases or simply lend a mood to the images. These plates were then bound in sand-paper to destroy any other books it came into contact with–Debord calls them an anti-book. The book was published at Jorn’s expense and given away as a sumptuous gift to friends.” (adapted from L. Bracken, Guy Debord, 1997, pp 34-35)

The second issue of the book, in slightly different format, appeared in Copenhagen in 1959.

Publisher L’Internationale situationniste, 1958
[64] pages

Commentaries:
Books of Warfare: The Collaboration between Guy Debord & Asger Jorn from 1957-1959 (Christian Nolle, Virose, 2005)
The Making of Fin de Copenhagen & Mémoires (Bart Lans, TU Delft, 2008)
En ukendt og berygtet celebrity? Guy Debord, potlatch og myten om Mémoires (Thomas Hvid Kromann, 2016, Danish)

English translator
Footnotes and sources of detournements (compiled by Ian Thompson, 2015)
Wikipedia

Mémoires (French, 2nd ed., Copenhagen, 1959, 254 MB, added on 2017-10-7 via Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library)
Mémoires (French, 1993 reprint by Jean-Jacques Pauvert aux Belles Lettres of 1959 Copenhagen edition, low res PDF, 2 MB, via AVANT)
Mémoires (English, facsimile trans. Ian Thompson, 2015, PDF, 16 MB)

See also Fin de Copenhague, 1957.

Kenneth Goldsmith: Theory (2015) [EN, FR]

“Theory offers an unprecedented reading of the contemporary world: 500 texts – from poems and musings to short stories – printed on 500 pages assembled in the form of a ream of paper. Curated by the author-poet, this collection maps out the various issues and trends in contemporary literature in a world currently being shaken up by everything online and digital, and calls for the reinvention of creative forms.”

Edition directed by Mathieu Cénac and David Desrimais
Publisher Jean Boîte, Paris, May 2015
ISBN 9782365680103 (EN)
500 pages

Publisher (EN)
Publisher (FR)

Theory (English, cover, inner side of wrapper, label)
Théorie (French, trans. Léa Faust, cover, label)

Bernd & Hilla Becher: Gas Tanks (1993)

“Typological, repetitive, at times oddly humorous, Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographs of industrial structures are, in their cumulative effect, profoundly moving. The Bechers’ serenely cool, disarmingly objective, and notoriously obsessive images of water towers, gas tanks, grain elevators, blast furnaces, and mineheads have been taken over several decades, under overcast skies, with a view camera that captures each detail and tonality of wood, concrete, brick and steel.

In this work, the Bechers’ present four principally different forms of gas holders or gas tanks in 140 photographs taken during the years 1963-1992 in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. The subjects are photographed under overcast skies that eliminate expressive variations in lighting; the Bechers make no attempt to analyze or explain them. Captions contain only the barest of information: time and place. On the subject of gas holders, the Bechers limit their remarks to a minimal functional description, leaving the aesthetic dimension of their subject to the photographs themselves: much of the fascination of these photographs lies in the fact that these unadorned metallic structures, presumably built with little concern for their visual impact, are almost invariably striking in appearance.”

First published as Gasbehälter, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich, 1993.

Publisher MIT Press, 1993
ISBN 026202361X, 9780262023610
110 pages with 102 duotone plates

WorldCat

PDF (26 MB)