The Plagiarist Codex: An Old Maya Information Hieroglyph (1988)

“We have discovered from the barren wastelands of Central America an essential document in the early history of copyist strategies. Thought to have been created toward the end of the classical period of Mayan civilization, 998 A.D., the codex has been translated by a brilliant group of London plagiarists & the esteemed Amendant Hardiker from Wisconsin. Originally published by Plagerizedæ (Sic) Books in 1988 on the occasion of the Festival of Plagiarism held in London, San Francisco & Madison, WI. It is now distributed by Xexoxial Endarchy.” (mIEKAL aND, 1998)

“Something of a manifesto for plagiarism, Wisconsin style. Speaks to the enrichment of cultural dialogue through the reuse of old ideas in new combinations. An extension of collage theory if you will, in that not only are images and texts conflumed in a single multitrack, they are enriched by their new context and the new way they are perceived. The booklet consists of a series of ideograms put next to series of words, parallel text like the Rosetta Stone, serving to transliterate the sense of the pictures. Some, it would seem, are genuinely Maya, others are not. The coinages are exquisite: a useful one is “imagiarism”. Speaks of a communal body of ideas to which everyone has unabashed and inalienable rights. How can you steal whatʼs already yours?” (from the PhotoStatic Magazine review, 1988)

Publisher Plagerizedæ (Sic) Books, Madison, Wisconsin, 1988
Distributed by Xexoxial Editions
ISBN 1440442851
50 pages
via Xerox Sutra Editions

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