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
• Feministo Postal Art Event
• Robert Filliou
• Ken Friedman
• Klaus Groh
• Judith Hoffberg
• Pete Horobin
• Ray Johnson
• Istvan Kantor
• Milan Knížák
• J.H. Kocman
• Marek Konieczny
• Brigitta Milde
• Guttorm Nordø
• Omaha Flow Systems
• Letícia Parente
• Ewa Partum
• Géza Perneczky
• Paweł Petasz
• Bern Porter
• Bogdanka Poznanović
• 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, concept, pref. Jean Clair, Paris: CEDIC, 1971, 27+[200] pp. (French)/(English)

• 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.

• Mail Art Manifest Catalogue, ed. Guttorm Nordø, Trondheim: Idiot Press, 1987. Exh. cat. First and largest exhibition of its kind in Scandinavia, shown in museums in Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo in 1987, with about 600 participating mail artists from appr. 50 countries. Special issue of El Djarida, no. 5.

• 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.

• Alexandra Schoolman, "Art at a Distance: Mail Art in Latin America, 1969-2019", New York: Henrique Faria, 2019. Works.

• Arzu Ozkal, Mila Waldeck (eds.), Cabaret Voltaire: Fluxus West, San Diego and Southern California Mail Art, San Diego, CA: San Diego State University Press, 2023, 350 pp. Publisher.

• Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, "“Being Together”: the Meeting of Mail-Artists at the F-Art Festival in Gdańsk, 1975", ARTMargins, 18 Jun 2024.

• 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

	Visual art
Movements – 1990s – East Central Europe – Writers – Historians – Care – Museums – References. Art and culture, Contents, Index, About.