By Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960-2022) - by Karen Moss & Lucia Fabio (Paperback)

About the Book

"American artist Alison Knowles is best known as a co-founder of Fluxus, the avant-garde group founded in 1962. Knowles's groundbreaking experiments-from painting and printmaking to sculpture and installation, sound works, poetry, and artist's books-have influenced contemporary art and artists for more than fifty years. The first comprehensive exhibition of her significant but underexamined body of work, by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960-2022) will bring greater attention to all facets of the artist's oeuvre, presenting more than two hundred objects that span the entire breadth of her still-active career, from her intermedia works of the 1960s to forms of participatory and relational art in the 2000s. The traveling exhibition and accompanying catalog are an unprecedented opportunity for new audiences to discover and experience the incredible range and full impact of Knowles's art. The catalog features contributions by international Fluxus curators, historians, and scholars, including lead essays by organizer Karen Moss, Hannah B Higgins, and Nicole L. Woods, and short topical contributions by Lucia Fabio, Lauren Fulton, and Maud Jacquin and Sâebastien Pluot. It also features reprints of key articles by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, George Quasha, Julia Robinson, and Kristine Stiles, as well as a conversation between Alison Knowles and George Quasha. Richly illustrated with over 250 images, the full-color catalog includes a softcover layflat binding, special colored papers for each section, die-cut section dividers, and a chronology. This unique volume reflecting Knowles's practice is designed by Kimberly Varella, Content Object. The exhibition premieres at BAMPFA in July 2022 and will travel to the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK) in Oslo, Norway, in 2024"--

Book Synopsis

The first survey of the Fluxus cofounder's prolific avant-garde output, from eight-foot-tall books to make-a-salad performances

The American artist Alison Knowles' (born 1933) groundbreaking experiments--from painting and printmaking to sculpture and installation, sound works, poetry and artist's books--have influenced art and artists for more than 50 years but remain relatively unknown among mainstream audiences. The first comprehensive volume on the artist, By Alison Knowles: A Retrospective presents more than 200 objects that span the entire breadth of her career, from her intermedia works of the 1960s to forms of participatory and relational art in the 2000s.
The accompanying catalog features contributions by international Fluxus curators, historians and scholars, including lead essays by organizer Karen Moss, Hannah B. Higgins and Nicole Woods, and short contributions by co-editor Lucia Fabio, Lauren Fulton, Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot. It also includes reprints of key articles by Benjamin Buchloh, Julia Robinson and Kristine Stiles, as well as a conversation between Alison Knowles and poet George Quasha. Richly illustrated with more than 250 images, the full-color catalog, designed by Kimberly Varella, includes a softcover lay-flat binding, special colored papers for each section, die-cut section dividers and a chronology. The cover of the book is a makeready (press sheets gathered from printing the interior of the book) produced during the printing of the interior pages. Each cover in the edition is unique.

Review Quotes

An artful orchestration...wholly appropriate to the spirit of Fluxus.-- "AIGA"

By Alison Knowles smartly pushes the exhibition catalogue towards the form of artists' book, a fitting push for the work of such a seminal figure in the field.--Megan N. Liberty "Brooklyn Rail"

Though technically monographic, 'by Alison Knowles' necessarily convenes an entire Fluxus ensemble. Isolating Knowles from Higgins, Williams, George Brecht, Philip Corner, Shigeko Kubota, George Maciunas, Benjamin Patterson, Nam June Paik, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, and the omnipresent John Cage is like extracting the glue from a collage. In my experience, the best Fluxus exhibitions avoid grasping at epistemologically slippery questions about what Fluxus was and instead explore what Fluxus can still do.--Colby Chamberlain "Artforum"