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Ulises Carrión

Ulises Carrión (1941 - 1989) plays an important role in the young history of artists' publications. The Mexican-born author, artist, bookseller, and publisher made a significant contribution to the early definition of the artist's book and helped the genre gain its importance in art history. He ran Other Books and So, one of the first artist-run bookstores exclusively for artists' publications, between 1975 and 1979. Artists' books, artists' postcards, sound art on records, and artists' magazines were the offerings, and Carrión also organized 50 store exhibitions in four years, including Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins, and Jiri Valoch. The project developed into an important meeting place for the international artist scene and is considered a pioneer for many retail stores and publishing houses operated as art projects.

The postcard distributed at the opening described the project as "a space for the exhibition and distribution of other books, non books, anti books, pseudo books, quasi books, concrete books, conceptual books, structural books, project books, plain books, multiples, posters, postcards, records, cassettes." Carrión's interest was in everything unconventional and experimental that appeared in book form. Later, he expanded his field of work to include mail art, organized numerous exhibitions on it, and, together with Aart van Barneveld and Salvador Flores, edited Ephemera, a magazine on mail art and ephemeral art.

Carrión studied literature and philosophy in Mexico and, after a successful period as a writer, moved to Paris, Germany, England and finally the Netherlands to study. There he began to expand his artistic work into visual, fine art and produced his first artist book, which was followed by many others. His oeuvre includes artist books as well as more unikal works, performance, film and video, sound art, as well as theory around art and society.

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