The Books, 1968-2010
Peter Downsbrough
Like his contemporaries Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry and Sol LeWitt, American Conceptualist Peter Downsbrough (born 1940) combines a fondness for geometric art and typography with the possibilities of the artist’s book. Since the late 1960s he has worked across media (video, film and photography), but the artist’s book has proved an enduring format, a place in which to incorporate other projects and compose with text, line drawings, maps and photographs. In 1993 the publisher, book collector and curator Guy Schraenen wrote of his work: “One might call it the absolute zero of the book, since it presents itself in the simplest form.” This catalogue provides a comprehensive overview of the 85 artist’s books that Downsbrough has published from 1972 to the present, including such classics of Conceptualist book art as And, A Place—New York, Beside, Notes on Location 2 and Two Pipes Fourteen Locations.
