Piles of Books: Art as Publishing in the 20th and 21st Centuries. A Talk by David Senior at the CAC Reading Room

Thursday 2 June, 7 pm at the CAC Reading Room

David Senior, Bibliographer at the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York, will discuss a history of artists’ publications in the 20th and 21st centuries. Senior presents examples of how artists and designers have used little publications as experimental containers for new ideas, creating lively and accessible spaces to communicate work and archive art actions. Most examples will come from the collection of books that he works with at the MoMA Library and several recent library exhibitions he has organized of artists’ books and ephemera.

David Senior is the bibliographer at the Museum of Modern Art Library, where he manages collection development, including the library’s artists’ books collection. Senior lectures often on the history of artists’ publications and contemporary art and design publishing. He also curates exhibitions of MoMA Library materials including: THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY (2016), Ray Johnson Designs (2014), Please Come to the Show (2013), Millennium Magazines (2012), Access to Tools: Publications from the Whole Earth Catalog, 1968–74 (2011). Please Come to the Show, a book documenting his exhibition of artists’ invitations and show flyers from the MoMA Library, was published by Occasional Papers in 2014. His writing has appeared in Frieze, Dot Dot Dot, Bulletins of the Serving Library, ART PAPERS, and C Magazine. He organizes a regular program of events for Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair and the LA Art Book Fair called the Classroom. Senior edited an artist’s book series through Printed Matter and the NYABF from 2008-2014, which included publications with Dexter Sinister, David Horvitz, Emily Roysdon, Aaron Flint Jamison, James Hoff and Eve Fowler. He serves on the board of directors of Primary Information and Yale Union.

One issue of MoMA Millennium Magazines compilation was kindly donated to CAC Reading Room and now is part of the permanent display of its’ Recommended Readings’ collection. A full list of compilation can be viewed here.

MoMA Millennium Magazines collection preview on the webpage www.moma.org