Llano Community Bookstore is a two-part temporary bookstore, hosted for one day (Thursday, April 5, 1-6pm) at the CalArts Library, and for fifteen days (Friday, April 6 to Friday, April 20) at IKO IKO in Los Angeles.

CalArts graduate students have selected titles from the Textfield Distribution Catalog, to be included in both parts, and will install/deinstall and work as Shopkeepers during PART I of the temporary bookstore, located in the CalArts Library Microfilm Room. PART II of the temporary bookstore will be hosted by IKO IKO in Los Angeles, and includes furniture, used for both parts, designed by WAKA WAKA.

The (fictional) bookstore is based upon, and takes its name from, Llano Del Rio, which was organized under the Llano Del Rio Company and was a corporate-run socialist Utopian society initiated by Job Harriman, following his narrow defeat in a runoff election for the mayorship of Los Angeles. Harriman believed that the success of socialism depended not only on politics, but also on the realization of socialist principles. Harriman did not attempt to reform all of society, but rather, he believed that by creating a functioning socialist community within the larger society of capitalism, the larger society would gradually convert to socialism.

Book Affair will function as both a fair and a temporary library and will take place within the current installation, ‘Murals and Print’ by Fiona Connor.

While books will be offered for sale, the event will also be an opportunity for local publishers and artists to share titles and editions that are not always available to the Los Angeles community.

Along these lines, each participant will bring five books for either selling and/or sharing. A comprehensive bibliography with all participants and their titles will also be compiled and distributed. There will also be a xerox machine located on the premises for visitors to use.

Textfield, Inc. will display 5 books less than 10 inches, on a shelf provided by the organizers, and an Eduardo Sarabia vase/sculpture, placed on the seat of a chair/pedestal.

Book Affair will also display furniture made specifically for the event by Tahi Moore, Joshua Nathanson, Michael Ned Holte, and Fiona Connor among others.

Participants include: 2nd Cannons, A-Z video, Chinatown: the sequel, Dexter Sinister, Harsh Patel, Henry Glover, Kaleidoscope, Ooga Booga, Prism of Reality, Semiotexte, Textfield, Inc., Works Sited, and WorldFood Books.

Creatures of Comfort New York is pleased to present No More Reality, a temporary bookshop and exhibition organized by Textfield, Inc. The bookshop and exhibition will take place in Creatures of Comfort’s adjacent project space at 205 Mulberry St.

In conjunction with the bookshop, which will feature current and archived titles from Textfield Distribution, there will be an exhibition of work by artists that Jonathan Maghen has collaborated with through Textfield to realize various publishing projects. The exhibition will feature the works of Phil Chang, Arthur Ou, Eduardo Sarabia, and Anna Sew Hoy.

The bookshop and exhibition title have been appropriated from the Philippe Parreno work, No More Reality (the demonstration), 1991, which is a four-minute video of children demonstrating, and chanting the slogan and title (“No More Reality”).

New York Times Tmagazine.

Ray Johnson wrote poetic texts and letters and integrated language and a unique system of cryptic signs into his work. Considered by many the ‘father of Mail Art’, as early as 1953 Johnson began sending highly conceptual images/texts to friends, often encouraging the recipient to ‘add to’ the work, or ‘please send to’ someone else, or ‘return to Ray Johnson’. Forming the ‘New York Correspondence School’ in 1962, Johnson established an enormous network of participants throughout the world — one that remains active even after his death. Between 1963 and 1965, Ray Johnson printed thirteen pages of his book about death with the Pernet Printing Company, 120 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street. His title, which designated the thirteen unbound pages as a book, is A Book about Death, yet also A Boop about Death and A Boom about Death.

In “A Book About A Book About Death” close friend and author Bill Wilson elaborates on each of the pages of “A Book about Death”.

This publication is a reprint of the original The Pandhandler’s Handbook which was published by Kensington Publishing Cooperation in 1977.

Omar Rockford, founder of Omar’s School for Beggars, teaches out-of-work men and women how to creatively panhandle for a living. Successful, high-income begging on the streets requires imaginative deception. Omar demonstrates hundreds of foolproof methods in this handbook. You’ve got to have a glib tongue, a sense of urgency and a believable story – also proper dress and courtesy are a must. The first few weeks can be rough, since one isn’t easily adjusted to the embarrassment of being turned down. It takes about a month to become a real pro and practice does make perfect. With this practical guide, you’ll never need to work a real job again,

Adam Pendleton composes formal templates in which he slots information, shifting language, forms and images into an arena of artistic inquiry. Practicing extreme freedom of reference and quotation, as well as a rejection of conventional hierarchies among sources, Pendleton establishes new referential devices and displays in which he exploits the easy-psychology of biographical readings, rendering language and image both concrete and contingent. grey-blue grain comprises of a series of writings used and appropriated in previous works and performances.

Antonio Pigafetta’s questionable travelogue from 1591, titled Regnum Congo, was based upon stories from Duarte Lopez, a Portuguese explorer who supposedly visited the Congo. The travelogue introduces an odd vision of European landscape in which fantastic creatures are presented. South-African artist Ruth Sacks re-contextualizes these historical interpretations by re-appropriating them into contemporary conditions, juxtaposing the varied characteristics. Hence the logo of her fictional publishing house, Garamond Press: a fantastic animal based upon a description of one of the possible animals from Regnum Congo. The narrative of the book False Friends derives from the storyline of Edgar Allen Poe’s Murders at the Rue Morgue from 1841, generally agreed to be the first detective story ever written. This contemporary version is set in Antwerp, Belgium, and is split into three languages: Dutch (Flemish), French and English. To follow the story’s plot, one has to be fluent in all three languages.

This publications has been produced as part of the exhibition “High Level Margins With A Catalogue” by Nedko Solakov (18 September — 21 November 2010) and serves as a reading device for the stories as a reading device for the stories displayed on and around the margins of Kunstverein’s 3.5 m high ceiling.

Ginger&Piss is a cross between an academic journal and a darts club newsletter. The journal (falsely quoting Lawrence Weiner) is published twice yearly, and starts off in a limited run. Each issue contains a maximum of 5 or 6 contributions, of any length necessary.

The idea behind Ginger&Piss is to offer an outlet for authors to say what they feel is vital (and not necessarily at all related to the art world). The concept dictates that each contributor writes under a pseudonym. We–the editors–guarantee full privacy. We see the use of pseudonyms as an answer to the cowardice of the art world, be it a somewhat hypocritical answer. By allowing a platform to exist for candid critique but at the same time by still letting the author hide behind a pseudonym, we recognize our own cowardice. In fact, Ginger&Piss fully embraces its somewhat misleading bravery, but we think it makes sense for now, for the current cultural climate. 

Gay is the “subject” of the second issue of Ginger&Piss and continues the magazine’s flirtation with all-purpose (non) themes. As a verb and as an expression (and maybe even a curse) Gay may appear less one-dimensional than Loud (Ginger&Piss’ first theme. Flamboyantly exhibited as internal swagger and compulsive paranoia, the articles in this issue continue Ginger&Piss’ journey towards immaculate speculation.

Dear Reader,

Ginger&Piss is Kunstverein’s in-house magazine — a cross between an academic journal and a darts club newsletter. Ginger&Piss (the name a misquotation of Lawrence Weiner) is published twice yearly, with the first edition appearing in a short run. Each issue contains a maximum of five or six contributions of varying length, appropriate to the individual subject matter.

The remit of Ginger&Piss is simple: to offer an outlet for authors to say what they feel is vital (and not necessarily at all related to the art world) but were unable, unwilling or too afraid to publish previously. The concept dictates that each contributor writes under a pseudonym. We — the editors — guarantee full anonymity.

Loud is the subject of the first issue and it is a broad — probably far too broad — theme (if a them at all). In fact Quiet might have been more appropriate. But we at Ginger&Piss think a clear, ‘honest’ voice is better suggested by volume than whispering.

— Krist Gruijthuijsen and Maxine Kopsa