Modeled after the famed TV sci-fi series "The X-Files," "The &-Files" gathers together a covert body of documents following the long and often controversial career of "Art & Text," one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957-92), who soon moved to New York City to make his mark as an art critic, the magazine went on to become one of a handful of international art magazines that succeeded in capturing the turmoil and passing brilliance of that period of postmodernism.
Perceived through the eyes and ears of its longtime publisher and editor Paul Foss, "The &-Files" is comprised of an open letter, a lengthy interview, two questionnaires, and other commentaries and bibliographies, offering a unique insider account of the extraordinary advantages and pitfalls of publishing an art magazine.
Foreword : The Ampersand Years (Ross Chambers)
Introduction: Explicit Content, The Early Issues (Robert McKenzie)
I. Torsos in a Publisher's Gallery: An Open Letter (Paul Foss)
II. Producing the Line (Paul Foss interviewed by Rob McKenzie)
III. Peripheral Burnout (Paul Foss interviewed by Rex Butler)
VI. Woes of the Pharisees (Paul Foss interviewed by Simon Rees)
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Paul Foss is the publishing editor of the art magazines Art & Text (Melbourne, Sydney, Los Angeles, 1981-2002) and artUS (Los Angeles, 2003-ongoing). He is a renowned translator, anthologist, and author, whose publications include Island in the Stream: Myths of Place in Australian Culture.
Robert McKenzie is an Australian artist currently based in New York.
Rex Butler teaches art history at the University of Queensland, Brisbane. His published work includes Jean Baudrillard: The Defense of the Real.
Ross Chambers is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. His many books include Facing It: AIDS Diaries and the Death of the Author.
Simon Rees is a former curator at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand, and is currently curator at the Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Riassunto
A collection of documents following the long and often controversial career of "Art & Text", one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. This book offers an account of the advantages and pitfalls of publishing an art magazine.
