Do or DIY is the culmination of a productive 12 month long residency at the Whitechapel Gallery for the Yorkshire-based artists' publishing imprint. The Whitechapel is a world leading contemporary visual art gallery in London's East End, and has held major exhibitions of work by leading contemporary artists ever since it opened its doors in 1901.
We've been working with information as material since we produced their last major exhibition, The Perverse Library, in 2010 and we have been proud to be able to support this latest exhibition. Back in 2010, when The Independent invited us to select ten of the top 50 UK museums and galleries, the Whitechapel was in our top three places to visit. Having 'one of our own' exhibited there is a serious cause of celebration - massive congratulations to the team at information as material.
Here's the exhibition info, as published by the Whitechapel:
Writers’ collective information as material present their two part introduction to the concealed history of do-it-yourself publishing, as undertaken by some of the most renowned writers in Western literature. Their essay Do or DIY runs around the two galleries. Part one, titled ‘History,’ is a collection of anecdotes about literary icons who published their own works. Part two, titled ‘Praxis,’ champions new approaches to writing for the digital future of publishing. A pocketbook version of the essay, published by the group, is available to read now or take away.
Also on display are self-published works by Kathy Acker, Johanna Drucker, Ezra Pound, John Ruskin, Laurence Sterne and Virginia Woolf. Shown alongside them are mass-reproduced re-publications of their work, as well as fellow DIYers including Emily Dickinson, Martin Luther and Marcel Proust.
The exhibition runs until 15 April 2012 at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. If you are passing the Whitechapel, please check the exhibition out. If you won't be but do have friends in the Big Smoke then please let them know to drop by.
If you do go, be sure to pick up a copy of the free pocketbook publication that accompanies the exhibition.
View the full collection of images from the iam Whitechapel residency in our Gallery, here.