Archive as Artwork: Other Books and So Archive
After Other Books and So closed its doors at the end of 1978, Carrión converted his collection of artists’ books and mail art into the Other Books and So Archive (OBASA), and opened it to visits from fellow artists. Carrión viewed the care and maintenance of this archive as a key part of his practice, stating, “We’ve reached a privileged historical moment when keeping an archive can be an artwork.” While Carrión, through OBASA, was deeply invested in the practice of collecting, preserving, and organizing cultural artifacts, he was highly critical of “official” libraries, museums, and archives, which he described as the “perfect cemeteries for books.” By creating his own archive, at a distance from state cultural bureaucracies, he could investigate and rethink organizational forms while also questioning their structures and hierarchies.
Artists’ Books from the Other Books & So Archive, 1981
Ulises Carrión
Exhibition catalog
Other Books
Ulises Carrión
The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
November 21-December 14, 1980
Exhibition booklet
Art Photocopies Exhibition!
Ulises Carrión
Centrum’t Hoogt in collaboration with the Studium Generale of the University of Utrecht
February 26-March 21, 1982
Exhibition flyer
Claudio Goulart Presents: Casino Royale
Claudio Goulart (1954-2005)
Other Books and So Archive
April 28-May 22, 1982
Exhibition poster
Ulises Carrión Address Cards, 1975-1989
Ulises Carrión
Artists’ personal card file of addresses, over 1350 index cards
Throughout his career, Ulises Carrión meticulously maintained this card file of names and addresses, which he referred to as his “Address Archive.” Carrión developed his own classification system to navigate the cards: “horizontal signs” indicated the contact’s role or occupation; “vertical signs” indicated artistic media; and further sets of signs indicated the mailings sent to that contact. The card file provides insight into both the extent of Carrión’s personal network and how deeply he rooted his practice in archival thinking. An earlier version of this Address Archive, housed in a wooden box, appears in the bookwork “In Alphabetical Order” and in the documentary Bookworks Revisited.
Video Work
Bookworks Revisited Part I: a Selection, 1987
Ulises Carrión
Video, 36 minutes 33 seconds
Courtesy LIMA, The Netherlands
https://www.li-ma.nl/lima/catalogue/art/ulises-carrin/bookworks-revisited-part-1-a-selection/2991
In this video documentary, Carrión surveys many of the key bookworks that formed part of his Other Books and So Archive, a collection that represented years of activity publishing, distributing, and exhibiting artists’ publications. He offers up-close insight and analysis not only of how his contemporaries engaged with the medium of the book, but also into the archive that he considered to be a work of art in itself.
