(1982) Volume 5, Number 1

              inside special offset insert by kevin osborn volume 5 number 1 january 1982 the mail art commup editor's note ginny lloyd last july began a trek through the united states and europe first in cleveland she pro duced artwork and lectured on copy art under the auspices of the image resource center then in new york city she met other mail artists and collaborated with them on some film and audio works but the goal was europe which she visited for the next three months the following is her re port for umbrella england i stayed with bill and dorothy wells in london dorothy had organized and shown a mail art exhibit in 1981 and had also spent several months in los angeles she is best known in the mail art network for her color xerox postcards either sewn or pinned and collaged bill was working on pieces for his next paper show and inspired me to make several of my own something 1 had not done for several years i then bussed up to leeds to visit michael scott whose wit information on the network art and sense of play were a non-stop delight he even went on a jog with me one evening his inventiveness with words rubber stamps and images are always welcome in his mail art just seeing his bathroom door decorated with players cards is worth the long bus ride heading west i then visited hay-on-wye wales the town with the largest bookstore in the world in fact the whole town is one big bookstore if you are a collector of books and like to pour over stacks and stacks this is the place for you this also happened to be the area my father's ances tors lived making my presence here doubly important holland i had been advised that i would love amsterdam and my informant was on target ullses carrion of other books and so archive and , aart van barneveld of the now closed stem pelplaats were my gracious hosts while i worked on various projects at both spaces during my evening breaks i met with claudio goulart flavio maya and ronald wegman all participants in the mail art network the collection at stempelplaats was unbelievable to see rubber stamps from all over the world some carved by ar tists whose names i recognized the artists rubber stamp books and the published catalogues of the exhibitions held in the gallery made the october closing of this space a great loss at the other books & so archive i was able to pour over files and files of catalogued documentation of artists activities artists books mail art sound tapes and magazines after days of visual overload i realized it would be impossi wiew aart van barneveld stempelplaats amsterdam ble for me to see everything i did more research on my return to amsterdam but did not completely go through every file that interested me amsterdam is full of artists who are respected workers ma king valuable contributions to society i found the dutch very responsive and interested in the lectures demonstrations and information i was presenting they wanted to know about art in the united states especially on the west coast most had been exposed to artwork from new york i found this to bee generally true throughout europe and were very curious about me as well while in maastricht i visited v.e.c headquarters and rod summers rod has compiled an extensive audio art exchange project working closely with tom winter the audio ex change archives provided much to listen to and his creative management of the material was exciting to share the ar chives on mail art and years of correspondence with artists all over the world was well cataloged his record keeping is impeccable i was able to work on some audio with rod tom bass another vec assistant and lizbett rod's wife their approach to audio was both educational and certainly stretched my audio perceptions rod is also an excellent writer and shared with me several of his published pieces his ability to weave a story is fascinating and will hold your attention for hours issn 0160-0699