It was originally advertised as follows:
In the short run of Bernadette Mayer and Vito Acconci’s 0 to 9 (1967-1969), the mimeographed pages of the magazine provided an exhibition site for works from artists like Steve Paxton, Adrian Piper, and Mayer and Acconci themselves that explored the ancillary aspects of the written word—the notational, scriptural, graphic, or procedural. These “uses” hint towards an activity that happened, or could happen, beyond the page—a distinct quality which would be foundational for the burgeoning conceptualism that would dominate downtown New York art in the following decades. Indeed, the magazine eventually culminated in a total exit of the page. For its final issue, released as a supplement in Summer 1969, contributors went out—most commonly to the block bordered by 5th and 6th Avenues, 13th and 14th Streets—to incorporate the city and its inhabitants into novel modes of intersubjective performance; the issue itself is only the documentation of these events.
During this presentation, participants will first look closely at the copy of “Issue 6 Supplement: Street Works” contained in NYU’s Special Collections, and contextualize it in relation to prior issues of the magazine, as well as to its artistic and political moment. Following this session, the group will walk the ten minutes north from Bobst Library to the exact site denoted in the issue, on the way discussing the tripartite interplay between page, performer, and place.
Together, we looked at original copies of Bernadette Mayer and Vito Acconci’s 0 to 9 held in NYU’s Special Collections, while discussing the final, supplemental issue of the magazine “Street Works.” It was too cold for the site visit, but I had planned for a number of friends to ambush the group of unsuspecting scholars, involving them, too, in intersubjective performance. Oh well.
Slides here
cf.
A Provisional Theory of Nonsites by Robert Smithson
Oral history interview with Vito Acconci, 2008 June 21-28
Ubu web anthology of Conceptual Writing
So Called Ephemera by Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
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