Charles Simonds

Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1981. 97 pages, illustrations (some colour); 28 cm. Exhibition held November 7, 1981 to January 3, 1982 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Lower right corner bumped. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. "This book which accompanies the exhibition is an effort to begin to assemble the photographs and texts which will make it somewhat easier for future authors to deal with the diversity of Simonds's work, most of which has not even been photographed or otherwise documented. (There are also various kinds of private works which he makes for himself and friends which have not been considered here.) The photographs are arranged according to Simonds's categories and the section headings are based upon his written descriptions. The categories are not mutually exclusive; it would have been equally possible to group certain projects together as 'Cosmological' and 'Organic Architectures,' an option which the artist may exercise in the future. The three essays reflect the variety of responses that Simonds's Little People have elicited over the last decade. Simonds's work first appeared in the charged, politicized context of the early 1970s, which often focused upon the implications of his street works with regard to the conventions of the New York art world. Subsequent critiques questioned the apparent contradictions of his also making unique, salable works. John Beardsley's essays focuses on the question of the public works, while Daniel Abadie's evokes the myriad associations of fantasy and reality that we encounter through the range of Simonds's activities as an artist. The third essay alternates between a reading of the sculptures as objects and an introduction to some of the diverse ideas which contribute to their meaning; the notes can be read separately as suggestions for further exploration. The Commentaries are a personal tour of Circles and Towers Growing, again concentrating on the presence of the sculptures themselves in the exhibition. Reprinted in its entirety is Simonds's text Three Peoples, which relates the histories and beliefs of the Little People." - Introduction. CONTENTS: Introduction, by John Hallmark Neff; Charles Simonds's engendered places: towards a biology of architecture, by John Hallmark Neff; On the loose with the little people: a geography of Simond's art, by John Beardsley; Simonds: life built to dream dimensions, by Daniel Abadie; Three peoples, by Charles Simonds.. 1st. Paperback. Very Good. 4to.