Something Else Press

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The Something Else Press was originally from 1964 to 1974 in Chelsea (Manhattan) , New York beheimateter avant-garde publisher of artists' books , especially the Fluxus . The founder of the publishing house was the artist Dick Higgins (1938–1998).

Publishing history

After a break with Fluxus founder George Maciunas due to delays in book publication, Higgins founded the publishing house in 1964 and was the first publication to publish a volume of his own works ( Jefferson's Birthday and Postface ). The publisher has published many important texts and works by George Brecht (basic text on chance in art from 1957), Robert Filliou , Daniel Spoerri ( topography of chance , in translation), Alison Knowles , Emmett Williams as well as dozens of pioneers and representatives of the avant-garde such as Richard Huelsenbeck ( Dada Almanach ), Gertrude Stein (with American first publications), John Cage and Bern Porter .

Something Else Press was one of the first publishers in the United States of Concrete Poetry and other works by Fluxus artists in the 1960s, with the Anthology of Concrete Poetry published by Emmett Williams in 1967 together with Edition Hansjörg Mayer , Stuttgart, as one the first overviews for this new art form also found lasting interest in Germany.

The publishing program showed the close connection between the European and American Fluxus movements in the early years. In the mid-1960s, Higgins coined the term “poetry intermedia”, which was then later noted as intermediality . The combination of high quality in marketable formats for greater distribution created a counterbalance to the still, z. B. Maciunas and other handcrafted artist's books and book objects as originals, unique items or in very small editions. The strategy was to publish books with progressive content but a conventional look so that they could be placed in regular bookstores.

In the late 1960s, Something Else Press worked with artists such as Emmett Williams, editor-in-chief for the years 1966 to 1970, Alison Knowles , the poet Larry Freifeld, the Irish-American writer Mary Flanagan and the painter Ronnie Landfield .

Fluxus artist Ken Friedman served as general manager for Higgins in New York and California in 1970 and 1971. While Higgins remained the principal owner and publisher, others served as editors, including Emmett Williams and Jan Herman . Herman took on the job in 1973 and held it until the publisher left a year later. The original publishing house was Chelsea (imprint: New York, later also Middelton), which was relocated to the more northerly Glover (Vermont) in the 1970s (imprint: West Glover, later Barton).

In the ten-year existence of the publisher, it has published a little over 60 works and 20 brochures in the “Great Bear Pamphlet” series, cards, posters, newsletters and the like, which are still shown in art book or Fluxus exhibitions today. The works, which were originally considered by private collectors as artists' books, found their way into public collections through donations, so that today it is possible to catalog them from the point of view of art, literature and musicology.

Publications

Artist books

The 1960s

  • Dick Higgins : Jefferson's Birthday / Postface. New York 1964 (reversible tape).
  • Robert Filliou : Ample Food For Stupid Thought. New York 1965.
  • Al Hansen : A Primer of Happenings & Time / Space Art. New York 1965.
  • Ray Johnson : The Paper Snake. New York 1965.
  • Alison Knowles , Tomas Schmit , Benjamin Patterson , Philip Corner : The Four Suits. New York 1965.
  • Richard Huelsenbeck (Ed.): Dada Almanach. On behalf of the Central Office of the German Dada Movement. New York 1966. (Original edition: Reiss, Berlin 1920).
  • Daniel Spoerri : An Anecdoted Topography of Chance (re-anecdoted version). Done with the help of his very dear friend, Robert Filliou, and translated from the French, and further anecdoted at random by their very dear friend, Emmett Williams. With one hundred reflective illustrations by Topor . New York 1966.
  • Gertrude Stein : The Making of Americans: being a History of a Family's Progress. New York 1966. (Original edition: 1925).
  • Wolf Vostell : dé-coll / age happenings. New York 1966
  • George Brecht , Robert Filliou: Games at the Cedilla, or, the Cedilla takes off. New York 1967.
  • William Brisbane Dick : Dick's 100 Amusements. New York 1967. (Reprint of 1873 and 1879 editions: One hundred amusements for evening parties, picnics, and social gatherings ... including a new version of Mrs. Jarley's waxworks by C. Satterlee).
  • Marshall McLuhan : Verbi-Voco-Visual Explorations. New York 1967. ( Explorations. No. 8).
  • Emmett Williams (Ed.): An Anthology of Concrete Poetry. New York 1967. - One of the standard works on Concrete Poetry
  • Claes Oldenburg : Store Days: Documents from The Store, 1961, and Ray Gun Theater, 1962. New York 1967.
  • Emmett Williams: Sweethearts. New York 1967.
  • Merce Cunningham : Changes: Notes on Choreography. New York 1968.
  • Eugen Gomringer : The Book of Hours and Constellations. New York 1968. (German original title: The Book of Hours and The Constellations. Translator: Jerome Rothenberg).
  • Ruth Krauss , Marilyn Harris (graphics): There's a Little Ambiguity Over There Among the Bluebells and other Theater Poems. New York 1968.
  • Dieter Roth : 246 Little Clouds. New York 1968.
  • Gertrude Stein , Sherwood Anderson (preface): Geography and Plays. New York 1968. (Edition reprinted in 1922).
  • Henry Cowell : New Musical Resources. New York 1969.
  • John Cage : Notations. New York 1969.
  • Walter Gutman : The Gutman Letter. New York 1969.
  • Dick Higgins: foew & ombwhnw: a Grammar of the Mind and a Phenomenology of Love and a Science of the Arts as Seen by a Stalker of the Wild Mushroom. New York 1969.
  • Gertrude Stein: Lucy Church, Amiably. New York 1969. (Edition reprinted in 1930).

The 1970s

  • Richard Meltzer : The Aesthetics of Rock. New York 1970.
  • Daniel Spoerri: The Mythological Travels of a Modern Sir John Mandeville, being an Account of the Magic, Meatballs, and other Monkey Business Peculiar to the Sojourn of Daniel Spoerri upon the Isle of Symi, together with Divers Speculations thereon. New York 1970, ISBN 087110041X . (Translated from French by: Emmett Williams).
  • Wolf Vostell , Dick Higgins: Fantastic Architecture. New York 1971.
  • Ian Hamilton Finlay , Gordon Huntly : A Sailor's Calendar: a Miscellany. New York 1971.
  • Jackson Mac Low : Stanzas for Iris Leak. Barton 1971, ISBN 0871100622 .
  • Bern Porter : I've Left: a Manifesto and a Testament of SCIence and-ART (SCIART). New York 1971, ISBN 0871100762 .
  • Ernest M. Robson , Ken Friedman (illustrations): Thomas Onetwo. New York 1971.
  • Peter Finch (Ed.): Typewriter Poems. Millerton 1972, ISBN 0871100789 . (Contains: English Concrete Poetry by Peter Mayer, Will Parfitt, JP Ward, Nicholas Zurbruggf, Alan Riddell, Alison Bielski, Paula Claire and Thomas A. Clark, among others)
  • Dick Higgins: A Book About Love & War & Death. Barton 1972, ISBN 0871100819 .
  • Toby MacLennan : 1 Walked out of 2 and Forgot It. Millerton 1972, ISBN 0871100835 .
  • Bern Porter: Found Poems. Millerton 1972, ISBN 0871100797 .
  • Gertrude Stein: Matisse, Picasso and Gertrude Stein: with Two Shorter Stories. Millerton 1972, ISBN 0871100851 . (Contains: A Long Gay Book. Many Many Women. GMP ).
  • John Giorno : Cancer in My Left Ball: Poems, 1970-1972. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871101009 .
  • Brion Gysin , Jan Herman (Eds.), William S. Burroughs (Text), Ian Sommerville (Computer): Brion Gysin Let the Mice In. West Glover, Vermont 1972, ISBN 087110105X .
  • Geoffrey Hendricks : Ring Piece: the Journal of a Twelve Hour Silent Meditation. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871100983 .
  • Leon Katz : The Making of Americans: an Opera and a Play. From the Novel of Gertrude Stein. Barton 1973.
  • Richard Kostelanetz (Ed.): Breakthrough Fictioneers: an anthology. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871100878 .
  • Charles McIlvaine , Robert K. MacAdam: One Thousand American Fungi. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871100932 . (Reprinted from Toadstools, Mushrooms, Fungi Edible and Poisonous. One Thousand American Fungi. How to Select and Cook the Edible; How to Distinguish and Avoid the Poisonous. The Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis 1902).
  • Cary Scher: The Ten Week Garden. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871101033 (illustrated and handwritten by Linda Larisch).
  • Gertrude Stein: A Book Concluding with As a Wife Has a Cow, a Love Story. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871100924 . (With facsimiles of the original lithographs by: Juan Gris ).
  • Gertrude Stein: How to Write. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871100959 . (Reprint of the edition: Plain Edition, Paris 1931).
  • Emmett Williams: A Valentine for Noël: Four Variations on a Scheme. Barton 1973, ISBN 0871101076 .
  • Manford L. Eaton: Bio-Music. 1974.
  • Jan Herman (Ed.): Something Else Yearbook. 1974.

Great Bear Pamphlets

In addition to books, the Something Else Press published a series of 20 brochures of around 16 pages in length from 1965 to 1967, including up to 30 pages for manifestos, with the title "Great Bear Pamphlet", of which only the first ten were counted. The printing was done on different colored paper. In 2007 a new edition was published by Primary Information, New York .

  • Alison Knowles: By Alison Knowles . New York 1965 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 1). Printed on ocher colored paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 492k .
  • Dick Higgins: A Book About Love & War & Death: Canto 1 . New York 1965 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 2). Printed on light gray paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 660k .
  • George Brecht : Chance - Imagery. New York 1966. ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 3). Printed on yellow paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 676k .
  • Claes Oldenburg : Injun & Other Histories (1960). New York 1966 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 4). Printed on light brown paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 536k .
  • Al Hansen : Incomplete Requiem for WC Fields . New York 1966 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 5). Printed on medium blue paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 556k .
  • Jerome Rothenberg : Ritual: A Book of Primitive Rites and Events. New York 1966 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 6). Printed on light blue paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 568k .
  • Allan Kaprow : Some Recent Happenings . New York 1966 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 7). Printed on terracotta colored paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 592k .
  • Manifestos. New York 1966. ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 8). Printed on yellow paper. Contains texts by: Ay-O , Philip Corner , the WEB Dubois Clubs, Öyvind Fahlström , Robert Filliou, John Giorno , Al Hansen, Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles, Nam June Paik , Diter Rot , Jerome Rothenberg, Wolf Vostell, Robert Watts and Emmett Williams. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 844k .
  • Wolf Vostell: Berlin and Phenomena . New York 1966 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 9). Printed on peach-orange paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 824k .
  • Jackson Mac Low : The Twin Plays. New York 1966. ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. No. 10). Printed on olive green paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 588k .
  • John Cage : Diary: Change the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse). Continued, Part Three. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 11]). Text printed in multiple colors.
  • Bengt af Klintberg : The Cursive Scandinavian Slave. New York, 1967. ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 12]). Printed on orange paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf, 536k .
  • David Antin : Autobiography. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 13]). Printed on light blue paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 580k .
  • Philip Corner : Popular Entertainments. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 14]). Printed on light gray paper. (Collaged composition). Online edition: on ubuweb: historical . Retrieved September 25, 2010
  • Robert Filliou: A Filliou Sampler. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 15]). Printed on pink paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 628k .
  • Allan Kaprow: Untitled Essays and Other Works. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 16]). Printed on medium blue paper. New edition: ubuclassics pdf 796k .
  • Diter Rot: A Look into the Blue Tide: Part 2. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 17]). Printed on orange colored paper. Online edition: on ubuweb: historical . Retrieved September 25, 2010
  • Luigi Russolo : The Art of Noise (Futurist Manifesto, 1913). New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 18]). Printed on yellow paper. Original title: L'Arte dei Rumori. Translated by Robert Filliou. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 1.7mb .
  • Emmett Williams: The Last French-Fried Potato and Other Poems. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 19]). Printed on greenish yellow paper. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 684k .
  • A ZAJ Sampler: works by the Zaj group of Madrid. New York 1967 ( A Great Bear Pamphlet. [No. 20]). Printed on light purple paper. Contains texts by: José Luis Castillejo , Ramiro Cortés , Javier Martínez Cuadrado , Juan Hidalgo , Walter Marchetti , Tomás Marco, Eugenio de Vicente . (Translator: Peter Besas .) New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 688k .

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1991: Something Else Press: an Exhibition. September 5 - October 5, 1991, Granary Books Gallery, New York City
  • 2000: Something Else Press. April 1-20, 2000, Visual Research Center, Center for Artists' Books, Dundee
  • 2010: Something Else Press etc. - L'édition d'artiste de Dick Higgins à aujourd'hui. September 10-25, 2010, Center de documentation et de recherche d'Immanence, Archive Station, Paris

Literature (selection)

  • Peter Frank : Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography. McPherson, Brattleboro, New Paltz, New York 1983, ISBN 0-91423239-8 . ( A Documentext Publication ).
  • Dick Higgins: Intermedia. Something Else Newsletter, Something Else Press, New York 1966.
  • Dick Higgins: Two Sides of a Coin: Fluxus and Something Else Press. In: Visible Language. 26, 1992, Winter, No. 1-2, pp. 143-153.
  • Hugh Fox: Dick Higgins and the Something Else Press. In: Arts in Society. 11, 1974 (Summer), No. 2, pp. 308-317.
  • Hannah Higgins : Fluxus Experience. University of California Press, Berkeley, California 2002, ISBN 978-0520228672 .
  • Dick Higgins: Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays in Intermedia. San Diego State University Press, San Diego, California 1997, ISBN 978-1879691438 .
  • Dick Higgins: A Dialectic of Centuries: Notes Towards a Theory of the New Arts. Printed Editions, New York, NY, Barton, Vt. 1978, ISBN 0-914162-34-9 .
  • Dick Higgins: Horizons: The Poetics and Theory of the Intermedia. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois 1984, ISBN 0-8093-1142-9 ( Poetics of the New ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Steve Clay: Something Else Press: Exploring the Ways and Means of Communication. ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved September 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk
  2. ^ Dick Higgins: Intermedia . Something Else Newsletter 1, 1966
  3. ↑ Art Games: the boxes of the Fluxus artists. Ina Conzen. State Gallery Stuttgart. Oktagon Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89611-025-X ( Sohm-Dossier. 1), p. 78
  4. ↑ Writing according to Williams, Anthology, p. 333 (short biography); other spelling: Friefeld
  5. ↑ Published: Vol. 1 (1966/70) - 3 (1983). Online as a pdf at Primary Information
  6. ^ Hannah Higgins: Fluxus experience , 2002, p. 127. (preview on books.google.de). Retrieved September 24, 2010
  7. ^ Peter Finch website
  8. ↑ Great Bear Pamphlet Series. Primary Information, New York 2007, ISBN 9780978869717 (reprinted in a slightly different format in a wooden box). All issues online as pdf on UbuWeb
  9. ↑ Barbara Moore: A Poor Man's Keys to the New Art. 2008 (English). Retrieved September 27, 2010
  10. ↑ Exhibition information of the Visual Research Center in Dundee ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). Retrieved September 25, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk
  11. ↑ Exhibition information of the Immanence ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French). Retrieved September 25, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-immanence.org