This reading room was specially assembled for our residency at Sector 2337. It is made up of books, printed matter or digital format submitted by artists we have published in the past, by individuals, publishers or structures we have worked with in one way or another, or taken from our own library. This selection of publications, ranging from artist’s books to posters and scans, materializes our interests in transmission and in dissemination. Most of our publications initiate a dialogue and an exchange with artists and writers; bringing these books to Chicago and placing them on these shelves allows us to extend our collaboration. A physical and digital database listing and sorting the publications, complete with bibliographical informations, was created during the Sector 2337 residency. Feel free to sit down and browse.
The Reading Room will be shown during Poppositions 2016 as an Off-site project reflecting on contemporary publishing and artistic modes of diffusion. The shelves will be open to new contributions from artists, publishers, authors, friends of La Houle, exchanged books from the last Reading Room, but also to the participants of Poppositions as an extension providing the visitors with documents allowing them to explore further. The Reading Room is not a bookshop, a library, a museum, or a gallery, but maybe a little of all that at once; it is a space to look at, to read, to get information about the artists and their practice through the publication, reproduction and circulation of their work via printed matter, sound, digital content, etc. A focus will be put on the economical issues linked to artists publications and the financing of artistic projects, but also on modes of production pertaining to reproduction processes and ways of dissemination. A catalogue gathering extensive bibliographic information and including author and publisher contacts, will be available on site.
