Badlands Unlimited at the 2012 NY Art Book Fair
September 28–30, 2012
Badlands Unlimited is pleased to participate in the 2012 NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1. Badlands will premiere On Democracy by Saddam Hussein, co-published by Deste Foundation; E-book editions ofMade in USA, magazines produced by Bernadette Corporation in 1999–2001; Holiday by Paul Chan, published in an edition of one on a stone slab; a preview of the upcoming Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews by Calvin Tomkins; and artist editions by Ian Cheng, Petra Cortright, Micaela Durand, Josh Kline, Brenna Murphy, Cassandra Raihl, Travess Smalley, among others.
Come to the Art Book Fair and see the new titles and hear Paul Chan’s keynote speech at the Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference, Friday, September 28, and Petra Cortright reading from HELL_TREE, her acclaimed new e-book published by Badlands on Saturday, September 29.
New fall titles
On Democracy by Saddam Hussein
Co-published by Badlands Unlimited and Deste Foundation
Softcover book and enhanced e-book with multimedia content
5.5″ x 8″ x 0.5″, 144 pages
E-book available on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle
“If we do not practice democracy, we lose you and we lose ourselves.” –Saddam Hussein
In 2003, after returning from a month-long stay in Baghdad, Paul Chan was given a gift from a colleague in the human-rights group Voices of the Wilderness: a copy of three speeches on democracy written by Saddam Hussein in the 1970s, before he became president of Iraq. The speeches, compiled here for the first time in English, are politically perverse, yet eerily familiar. The then vice president of Iraq characterizes social democracy as demanding authority, and defines free will as the patriotic duty to uphold the good of the state. This volume takes the speeches as an opportunity to ask what democracy means from the standpoint of a notorious political figure who was anything but democratic, and to reflect on how promises of freedom and security can mask the reality of repressive regimes. With drawings by Paul Chan, including a new suite in its entirety, and essays by Bidoun‘s Negar Azimi, philosopher and artist Nickolas Calabrese and journalist Jeff Severns Guntzel.
Made in USA by Bernadette Corporation
Issues one, two, and three as hi-resolution e-books
Dimensions variable, 132–144 pages
E-books available on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle
From 1999 to 2001, the New York-based collaborative project Bernadette Corporation produced Made In USA, a magazine that combined fashion, art, music, and critique as an experimental publication. For three issues, Made In USA mapped out the cultural terrain for a generation of artists living in New York at a time when reactionary politics and the phenomenon of globalization reached a tipping point. Badlands is pleased to reissue these seminal and historical works as hi-resolution e-books for a new generation of artists and readers. The reissue of Made In USA coincides with the first retrospective of Bernadette Corporation, at Artists Space, New York. Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years recasts the works authored by the group since their inception in the early ’90s. The exhibition runs from September 9–December 16, 2012, and will travel to the ICA in London in Spring 2013. For more information, please visit Artists Space.
Holiday by Paul Chan
Edition of one published on a stone slab and e-book
1′ x 3′ x 2″, 2 pages
E-book available on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle
In Holiday, a young girl who loses her way in the world ends up inhabiting some place even stranger. Published on a stone slab approximately 3′ x 1′ x 2″ and as an e-book, Holiday falls somewhere within the tradition that produced Gilgamesh, the Rosetta Stone, and The Ten Commandments: engimatic texts written by authors of dubious origins and published in stone for questionable purposes. Badlands is proud to take up this tradition and to continue our mission of making “books in an expanded field.”
Coming winter 2012
Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews by Calvin Tomkins
Softcover book and enhanced e-book with multimedia content
5.125″ x 8″ x 0.4″, 110 pages
E-book will be available on Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle
In 1964, Calvin Tomkins spent a number of afternoons interviewing Marcel Duchamp in his apartment on West 10th street in New York City. Casual yet insightful, Duchamp reveals himself as a man and an artist whose playful principles toward living freed him to make art that was as unpredictable, complex, and surprising as life itself. Those interviews have never been edited and made public, until now. The Afternoon Interviews, which includes an introductory interview with Tomkins reflecting on Duchamp as an artist, guide, and friend, reintroduces the reader to key ideas of his artistic world and renews Duchamp as a vital model for a new generation of artists.
About Badlands Unlimited
Founded by Paul Chan in 2010, Badlands Unlimited publishes e-books, limited edition paper books, and artist works in digital and print forms. Historical distinctions between books, files, and artworks are dissolving rapidly. We publish and produce new works by artists and writers that embody the spirit of this emerging dissolution. We make books in an expanded field.
