PROJECT DESCRIPTION

A New York Times best art book of 2021

"[A] gold mine of a book... [f]unny, biting, morbid, it's a page-turner for sure." --Holland Cotter's "Best Art Books of 2021," The New York Times

Ray Johnson (1927–1995) was a renowned maker of meticulous collages whose works influenced movements including Pop Art, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art. Emerging from the interdisciplinary community of artists and poets at Black Mountain College, Johnson was extraordinarily adept at using social interaction as an artistic endeavor and founded a mail art network known as the New York Correspondence School.

Drawing on the vast collection of Johnson’s work at the Art Institute of Chicago, this volume gives new shape to our understanding of his artistic practice and features hundreds of pieces that include artist’s books, collages, drawings, mail art, and performance documentation. In keeping with Johnson’s democratic, rhizomatic, and antihierarchical ethos, this indispensable resource on the artist’s oeuvre contains 700 illustrations, many of them never before published, and twenty-one short essays by various contributors that allow readers to dip into and out of the book in a nonlinear manner.

Caitlin Haskell is Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of International Modern Art, and Jordan Carter is associate curator of modern and contemporary art, both at the Art Institute of Chicago.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 9 x 12

Number of Pages: 376

Binding Method: Smythesewn with reverse French-fold flapped softcover

Paper: 100gsm Fedrigoni Arena Natural Rough, 80gsm Cairn ECO

Typefaces: Cooper Black, CMU Typewriter

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Irma Boom

Art Director: Irma Boom

Book Designer: Irma Boom

Jacket/Cover Designer: Irma Boom

Illustrator:

Photographer: Liana Jegers, Amy Kaczmarek, Robert Lifson, Joe Tallarico, and Craig Stillwell - Imaging, the Art Institute of Chicago

Picture Editor: Kylie Escudero

Production Director: Joseph Mohan

Production Coordinator: Ben Bertin

Production Artist:

Other Credits: Greg Nosan - Executive Director, Publishing, the Art Institute of Chicago; Lisa Meyerowitz - Editorial Director, Publishing, the Art Institute of Chicago; Amy Peltz - Editor; David B. Olsen - Proofreader; Jane Friedman - Indexer; Owen Conway, Jonathan Mathias, and Shelby Silvernell - Postproduction, Imaging, the Art Institute of Chicago; Elyse Allen, Aidan Fitzpatrick, and P.D. Young - Preproduction and Coordination, Imaging, the Art Institute of Chicago; Professional Graphics - Separations; Lenoirschuring - Separations

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