A sumptuous facsimile of a vertiginous artist's book from the founder of the mail-art movement Long out of print and unavailable to wider audiences, The Paper Snake is an essential work in Ray Johnson's oeuvre and the second title published by Dick Higgins' Something Else Press, in 1965. Johnson describes the book as "all my writings, rubbings, plays, things that I had mailed to [Higgins] or brought to him in cardboard boxes or shoved under his door, or left in his sink, or whatever, over a period of years." A vertiginous, ...
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A sumptuous facsimile of a vertiginous artist's book from the founder of the mail-art movement Long out of print and unavailable to wider audiences, The Paper Snake is an essential work in Ray Johnson's oeuvre and the second title published by Dick Higgins' Something Else Press, in 1965. Johnson describes the book as "all my writings, rubbings, plays, things that I had mailed to [Higgins] or brought to him in cardboard boxes or shoved under his door, or left in his sink, or whatever, over a period of years." A vertiginous, mind-bending artist's book, The Paper Snake was far ahead of its time. In his essay "The Hatching of the Paper Snake," Higgins says: "I was fascinated by the way that the small works which Ray Johnson used to send through the mail seemed so rooted in their moment and their context and yet somehow they seemed to acquire new and larger meaning as time went along ... Since a book is a more permanent body than a mailing piece or even than our own physical ones, I could not help wondering what it would be like to make a new body for Johnson's ideas as a sort of love letter or time capsule for the future." A collection of letters, little plays, tid-bits, collages and drawings, The Paper Snake connects disparate elements to unbed fixed relationships and forge new systems of meaning by means of scissors, paste and the American postal system.
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Add this copy of Ray Johnson the Paper Snake to cart. $36.77, new condition, Sold by Paperbackshop rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensenville, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Siglio Press.
Add this copy of Ray Johnson: the Paper Snake to cart. $43.72, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Siglio.
Add this copy of Ray Johnson: the Paper Snake to cart. $50.00, like new condition, Sold by Studio Books Oregon rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Corvallis, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Siglio Press.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. Originally published by Dick Higgins and Something Else Press in 1965. This reprint edition by Siglio Press was limited to 1840 copies. Oblong quarto, illustrated throughout. Fine copy in a fine dust jacket in a mylar protector. Shipped in a box.
Add this copy of Ray Johnson: the Paper Snake to cart. $75.23, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2014 by Siglio.