Abstract
BLACK PAGES is an artist fanzine that came to a conclusion after producing one hundred issues over a period of thirteen years. The BLACK PAGES 01–100 exhibition at Franz
Josefs Kai 3, Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst takes the form of an extensive installation and pays tribute to this remarkable publishing venture... BLACK PAGES was conceived as an art exhibition space in print form. This central idea has now been translated into a three-dimensional space. BLACK PAGES 01–100 is devised as a tour across the aesthetic parameters of the artzine and provides insight into the different artistic practices as they relate to exhibiting in the publication format. The individual issues, whose designs reflect artistic positions, appeared in limited editions of 300 copies, came in DIN A5 format, contained a 16-page black and white core, and, as a democratic principle, featured only the artist’s first name as the title. BLACK PAGES 01–100 highlights the scope of experimentation the artzine spawned as a medium of presentation, representation, and documentation. A number of artists saw BLACK PAGES as an opportunity to explore forms of visual storytelling, as a medium where photography, film, performance, comics, drawings, object art, and painting could take shape along with language-based art, theoretical reflections, and poetry. The individual issues of BLACK PAGES on display in this show are not only objects inviting to engage with their content, but double as elements of its spatial design. Their arrangement around the room evokes a rhythmic structure reminiscent of musical notations.