The Beau Geste Press
Ulises Carrión created two artists’ books in 1973 with the Beau Geste Press, an artist-run imprint based in England and founded by fellow Mexican expatriates Felipe Ehrenberg and Martha Hellion and English artist David Mayor. Carrión maintained a lively correspondence with Ehrenberg in the early 1970s, and he became inspired by Beau Geste Press’ artisanal, communal, and self-directed approach to publishing. The two titles he published with Beau Geste Press, Arguments and Tras la Poesía / Looking for Poetry, marry Beau Geste’s vibrant and unconventional publishing style with Carrión’s conceptual approach to language, sequence and space.
Tras la poesía / Looking for poetry, 1973
Ulises Carrión
Artists’ book
Arguments, 1973
Ulises Carrión
Artists’ book, mimeograph printed on colored paper
Arguments consists of a series of 25 concrete poems composed entirely of first names. Through the graphic interaction of the names alone, each poem, or “argument,” traces the intricacies of a human relationship as it develops. Carrión thus strips the domestic drama of the classic novel to its bare minimum, transferring the responsibility of filling in the details of the scene from the author to the reader. With its boldly-colored pages and carefully typeset text, Arguments puts Beau Geste Press’ attention to the craft of the book on full display.
Parts of a Body House Book, 1972
Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019)
Artists’ book
Generacion: Libro 1 / Book 1, 1973
Felipe Ehrenberg (1943-2017)
Artists’ book
Fluxshoe add end a 72-73, 1973
Felipe Ehrenberg, Terry Wright, and David Mayor, editors
Artists’ publication
This publication, in the format of an envelope containing varied printed ephemera, documents the Fluxshoe exhibition, which traveled for nine months in 1972-1973. The exhibition and publication featured many artists associated with the international Fluxus movement, which encompassed practices including performances, experimental music, the creation of artists’ multiples, and participatory works, often based on instructional “scores.” The Beau Geste Press’ democratic and collaborative ethos embodied its connections to the Fluxus movement.
Humphrey is here! : being a broadsheet of thoughts gathered when Beau Geste Press christened its M.A.N. two rev. letterpress cylinder, 1973
David Mayor
Broadsheet artists’ publication
