A Book About A Book About Death

Publisher: Kunstverein Publishing
Edited by Krist Gruijthuijsen and Maxine Kopsa.

Ray Johnson wrote poetic texts and letters and integrated language and a unique system of cryptic signs into his work. Considered by many the ‘father of Mail Art’, as early as 1953 Johnson began sending highly conceptual images/texts to friends, often encouraging the recipient to ‘add to’ the work, or ‘please send to’ someone else, or ‘return to Ray Johnson’. Forming the ‘New York Correspondence School’ in 1962, Johnson established an enormous network of participants throughout the world — one that remains active even after his death. Between 1963 and 1965, Ray Johnson printed thirteen pages of his book about death with the Pernet Printing Company, 120 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street. His title, which designated the thirteen unbound pages as a book, is A Book about Death, yet also A Boop about Death and A Boom about Death.

A Book About A Book About Death accompanies the exhibition “Ray Johnson, A Book About Death” held at Kunstverein, Amsterdam, 12/12/09 – 31/01/10.