(1982) Volume 5, Number 2

              volumes number 2 russirn srmizdflt firts 196q-1s8z franklin furnace in new york city is giving the public a rare opportunity to view russian samizdat art eurated by rimma and valery gerlovin the chance to see and experi ence handmade books and artworks made by russian artists since the 1960s who used these as the only outlet to express their aesthetic and political ideals is unique these samiz dat or self-published bookworks were a phenomenon begun in the 1960s illegally printed and chain-distributed in the soviet union as well as works by those russian artists who continue samizdat in the west by various means the exhibition includes work by 28 artists reflecting a rich peri od of self-publishing in the soviet union these works are collected by people throughout the world as another aspect of bookmaking not in the avant-garde book tradition but a way of getting an aesthetic and political work out to a larger audience than in the repressed society of russia and the eastern european countries the curators emigres to america themselves feel that the cultural artifact which is the samizdat book is completely independent of any outside influence involving no censor ship whatsoever since each work consists of typed or hand written carbons in an edition of 2 to 12 copies printing equipment of any kind including copying machines is ille gal in the repressed russian society so that each copy is passed from hand to hand accompanied by discussion and recommendation distribution is always dangerous especial ly of handmade books if they are ever seen in public places with that repressive social situation there is a binding force in the artistic and poetry community so that the challenge that this represents creates a stimulus for creativity the exhibition which opened on 24 february and remains available through 17 april is unique also because there is no way of showing handmade book objects in russia it is against the law among the artists are henry khu dy akov b 1930 who did his first bookwork in 1963 typed on onion skin paper on the typewriter 10 copies with a manifesto from his own publishing company and handwritten com mentary visual poems are his medium and his fame has spread he now lives in new york where he emigrated in 1974 and makes non-verbal symbolic objects such as suits vagrieh bakhchanyan b 1938 is a performance in him self using books and mail art as his documentation he was the first who deliberately started the wave of bookobjects and developed his medium of general production doing a book of tobacco with real tobacco for pages or toilet-pa per book with pages of that medium on his mail art he puts the label vagrich bakhchanyan president reagan's advisor on mail art his work is based on paradox writing menus obituaries dreams and orders other artists in the exhibition show collaboration artists march 1982 rimma gerlovin the man with poets photographers and musicians as reflected in the collaboration of the curators of the show in book media rimrna's box-housed poems done from cardboard covered with colored fabric with text inside and outside allow the viewer to participate and change the meaning of the message by manipulating the cubes turning them over,creating a new sense a man sl six-foot structure consists of soft-covered boxes with bells inside bearing inscriptions on every side from positive to negative and the viewer/participant is sup posed to create his own ideal person the gerlovins tell us that now in moscow there are popular book-performances such as those of the moscow collective action group a group of three artists who in 1979 laid on the snow about 20 handmade colored books which partici pants and spectators decomposed further as these books con sisted of different colored square-shaped loose pages with a concrete poetry text other groups and collaborators use books in their works such as political artists komar and me lamid the gerlovins on the night of the opening did a perfor mance/action in which they both threw out to the group of spectators and guests tickets visas to franklin furnace small handmade cardboard books entitled russian yellow pages 1982 as well as a sheet of paper which valery threw down to the spectators entitled compressed russian spirit con centrated in a ¦ suitable for transplantation issn 0160-0699