A previously unpublished anthology of classic texts from Something
Else Press, assembled in the 1970s by Dick Higgins, with works by John
Cage, Al Hansen, Claes Oldenburg and many more
Conceived by poet, publisher, artist, composer and writer Dick Higgins
(1938-98) in the early 1970s to celebrate Something Else Press--the
legendary publishing company he founded in 1963 to showcase Fluxus and
other experimental artists--this volume, which was never realized in
Higgins' lifetime, collects an amazing array of 1960s avant-garde
creativity. Something Else Press published some of the most radical art
and literature of its time and provided a foundation and template for
the artist's book medium, which has flourished internationally since the
1960s.
The Reader features selections from rare and out-of-print Something
Else classics such as Claes Oldenburg's Store Days; John Cage's
Notations; Emmett Williams' An Anthology of Concrete Poetry; Richard
Kostelanetz's Breakthrough Fictioneers anthology; Jackson Mac Low's
pioneering poetry collection, Stanzas for Iris Lezak; Gertrude Stein's
Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein; Bern Porter's I've Left; Wolf
Vostell's Dé-coll/age Happenings; Al Hansen's A Primer of Happenings
& Time/Space Art; and other pamphlets and artist projects for the page
by Robert Filliou, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Alison Knowles, Nam June Paik,
Philip Corner, Daniel Spoerri, André Thomkins and Richard Meltzer, among
others. A critical checklist/bibliography assembled by Hugh Fox and
Higgins' introduction from 1973 completes the original manuscript.
