Books Fuel Ideas

The idea for this show came from posters. Specifically Eve Fowler’s Gertrude Stein posters and the posters that Sam Gordon has collected for over a decade at art openings, concerts, performances, and events throughout NYC. The first run was in the gallery at University of Southern California. Eve and Sam each had a room united by their collaborative effort – a Stein poster covered in Sam’s studio floor sweepings. Shortly after, Printed Matter invited us to the New York Artist’s Book Fair where we staged a reading of Stein and Stein-inspired texts and a corollary show resulted at the Printed Matter storefront with documents culled from both of their archives.

In Miami, I met Amanda Keeley who was working on a mobile book store called EXILE Books and the project evolved into a conversation about books, text, display, and archive. Amanda invited her close friend Lizzi Bougastos, who recently was commissioned by MoMA to compose a sound piece as tribute to John Cage’s 4’ 33”. It was this addition that opened up the fourth veil and gave meaning to the project in its new home at BFI: Books Fuel Ideas. Every word read or written in delves upon us the poetry / record of human thought. It is why we hold onto our books and share them with others. A lifeline to the threads of history that connect us across time and space. 

Someone recently gave me a book. Risquer La Liberte or Risking the Liberty. The title alone made me fall in love. There is something sacred in the gift of a book. An inscription. A scent. The pause in an earmark. Each intimate gesture reminiscent of the person who gave it or read it before. And with each new read, a new thought is born. 

The show itself is a gift. A careful selection of the texts that have shaped this group of artists. Sam Gordon will be recreating his Printed Matter storefront collaboration with Eve Fowler, which will include a new selection of ephemeral posters, flyers, and related projects. Lizzi Bougatsos has produced her first artist’s book co-published by EXILE and Boo-Hooray titled Her Perfume Tears with photos, writings, lyrics, and memorabilia from her performance archives. Eve Fowler will activate local downtown bus shelters with her public billboard project “the difference is spreading” featuring quotes from Gertrude Stein. The opening reception on December 5 will feature a frozen bookcase created by Keeley, with contributions by all participating artists, and will be accompanied by a sound track that Bougatsos has composed for the melting archive. Please join us on December 5 from 6-9pm to celebrate Books Fuel Ideas in the hopes that these works will continue to inspire; to fuel ideas into the future.