ETERNAL NETWORK: A MAIL ART ANTHOLOGY
Chuck Welch, ed. University of Calgary Press: Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
1995. ISBN: 1-895176-27-1. Eternal Network is the first university press
publication to explore the historical roots, aesthetics and new directions of
contemporary mail art in essays by prominent, international mail art networkers
from five continents. Fulbright recipient and Dutch scholar Eric Voss states,
"In my opinion Eternal Network stands out as the finest reference and
source book on the history, theory, practice, and aesthetics of mail art to
date."
This forty-chapter illustrated book examines the free exchanges and
collaborations of an international community whose mailboxes and computers
repalce the museum, where the address is the art, and where "mail art is not
fine art, it is the artist who is fine." Readers will find numerous photographs
of mailed artifacts, performance events, congresses, stampsheets, posters,
collages, artists' books, visual poetry, computer art, mail art zines, copy art
and rubberstamped images.
The book is divided into six parts: Networking Origins, Open
Aesthetics, New Directions, Interconnection of Worlds, Communication Issues and
Ethereal Realms. Appendixes include mailing addresses, mail art exhibitions, a
listing and location of over 350 underground mail art magazines and a
compreshensive record of public and private international mail art
archives.
Edited by Chuck
Welch (cc), longstanding mail artist and writer, Eternal Network is an
illustrated philosophy threading its course through the fabric of networking
theories, ethics and values from 1960 to the present. Artists, non-artists,
students and scholars are invited to corresponDANCE with global villageartists
who quick-step beyond establishment boundaries of art. The texts, proposals,
poetry, parables and visions of Eternal Network are a testament to the
future of alternative art and the role of artists as networkers. For more
information about this book contact Eternal Network, PO Box 370, Etna, NH
03750-0370.