Publish or Perish

About

“The definition of artistic activity occurs, first of all, in the field of distribution.”—Marcel Broodthaers

Publish or Perish focuses on artists who align their practice with varied modes of content distribution and circulation, often experimenting with new forms that promote accessibility, collaboration, and engagement with others. Publishing, broadly defined to include books, zines, PDFs, and other digital content, is a central component of their artistic repertoire. These works often defy conventional aesthetic hierarchies in counterpoint to prevailing market conditions. In an over-saturated and over-built culture, notions of ascribed value continue to expand, as some published works take on increasing value as they move through different channels of distribution and are absorbed into institutional and private collections. However, as economic challenges relate directly to issues of cultural over-abundance, our perspective regarding the value placed on art is also challenged, thus recontextualizing production into what Edgardo Antonio Vigo calls the "unmaking" of art objects. Ultimately, as self-publishing becomes more prominent as a tool in the pursuit of autonomy, so too does its intrinsic ideology of the self-organized.

“Publishing has never been a fixed notion. ‘What is publishing today?’ remains a relevant inquiry, but with an expanding field of response, as platforms, channels and modes of production mutate and multiply.”—Paul Soulellis

“La Bibliothèque Fantastique is an artist’s books virtual publisher. Our books are free and downloadable from the internet so that you can print them at home."—Antoine Lefebvre

"The power of books is to exist in several copies, and you can always destroy one, either by water, or fire, or stupidity; other copies will remain."—Farah Khelil + Antoine Lefebvre

“Za Nami is a 32 page full color photo book taken in Poland. Bound by elastic so you can put your favorite pictures on your wall.”— Nicole Reber

“The exhibition is a tool of the market, but at the same time oddly resistant to being sold. The curator is a force within that market, but has the alternative to maneuver against the current rather than with it.”—Sessa Englund

"All these projects are caused by my experience as a reader and by my dissatisfaction with this position. They deal with what we could call the ‘mediate knowledge’ issue. In the past, people used to be preoccupied by the events that concern them directly. They were in the dark about the global situation of the world but they were in close touch with their limited reality. On the opposite, we know a lot about the world but almost everything we know about it we learnt second-hand. Consequently, the reality we deal with is purely intellectual, like disembodied."—Benoît Broisat

“For $1 USD I will think about you for one minute. I will email you the time I start thinking, and the time I stop.”—David Horvitz

With works by 
Benoît Broisa
Sessa Englund
David Horvitz
Farah Khelil + Antoine Lefebvre Editions
Nicole Reber
Paul Soulellis