Private view at 14 ...

12-18:

ABC Artists' Books Cooperative @ The Mews Project Space

“I guess maybe I woke up in a cold sweat once and just had this light bulb go off of doing a book of some sort.”

This is how Ed Ruscha, in a 2004 interview, recalled the events that led him to start creating books. The books he started making half a century ago were influential for generations of artists. To honour his contribution to the artist’s book, members of ABC Artists’ Books Cooperative are launching ABCED in Autumn 2012. ABCED is a multi-volume book project created on the occasion of Ed Ruscha’s 75th birthday, consisting of 33 books by 24 artists:

Abstracted by Jonathan Lewis · Aped by EJ Major · Auctioned by Andreas Schmidt · Borrowed by Joachim Schmid · Clicked by Wil van Iersel · Clothed by Deanna Dikeman · Collected by Wil van Iersel · Colored by Tanja Lažetić · Covered by Hermann Zschiegner · Derailed by David Schulz · Disappeared by Joshua Deaner · Distilled by Jonathan Lewis · Dressed by Julie Cook · Exploded by Tanja Lažetić · Freed by Fred Free · Fucked by Andreas Schmidt · Ignored by Jean Keller · Peed by Jochen Friedrich · Pronounced by Erik Benjamins · Pumped by Mishka Henner · Recounted by Elisabeth Tonnard · Replicated by Joachim Schmid · Reworded by Travis Shaffer · Richtered by Mishka Henner · Rorschached by Andreas Schmidt · Sampled by Jonathan Lewis · Scarred by Burkhard von Harder · Sliced by Heidi Neilson · Stained by Eric Doeringer · Stripped by Paul Soulellis · Uncompleted by Mariken Wessels · Visited by Fred Free · Yellowed by Victor Sira

All books are print on demand, 8x5 inches, softcover, open edition. Books are available individually either from the artists or at blurb.com. A discounted boxed set containing all 33 books will be available from ABC soon.

The series will be launched in multiple venues across the globe in the final weeks of September 2012:

Thursday 20th September at the London Art Book Fair and Offprint Amsterdam
Sunday 23rd September at Mews Project SpaceThursday 27th September at the New York Art Book Fair

For the exhibition at Mews Project Space ABC artists have expanded the ABCED concept to include prints, sculptures, and an interactive installation: