Books published by Inventory Press LLC

Artists from Francis Alys to the Otolith Group meditate on the aesthetic and political possibilities of "the percussive"Accompanying the 2022 exhibition at Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, Drum Listens to Heart reflects on the many ways that percussion exists beyond the framework of music and imagines "the percussive" as an aesthetic, expressive and political form more broadly. The publication includes a new essay by the curator, images of the works in the exhibition by the 25 artists and artist collectives, and short texts by 10 scholars, writers, artists and curators who respond to a single word to create a "glossary" of terms associated with percussion. Artists include: Francis Alÿs, Luke Anguhadluq, Marcos Ávila Forero, Raven Chacon, Em'kal Eyongakpa, Theaster Gates, Milford Graves, David Hammons, Consuelo Tupper Hernández, Susan Howe & David Grubbs, NIC Kay, Barry Le Va, Rose Lowder, Lee Lozano, Guadalupe Maravilla, Harold Mendez, Rie Nakajima, the Otolith Group, Lucy Raven, Davina Semo, Michael E. Smith, Haegue Yang and David Zink Yi. Live performances by Elysia Crampton Chuquimia, Moor Mother, Nkisi, Nomon, Karen Stackpole, Marshall Trammell and William Winant.

Two decades of multimedia works and collaborations exploring the elusive edges of the material and the immaterialThe sculptures, paintings, videos and installations of New York-based artist Mika Tajima (born 1975) explore the embodied experience of ortho-architectonic control and computational life. From architectural systems to ergonomic design to psychographic data, Tajima's works operate in the space between the immaterial and the tangible to create heightened encounters that target the senses and emotions of the viewer.This catalog includes full-color reproductions of Tajima's work at the 2019 Okayama Art Summit; her early performances with Charles Atlas, Judith Butler and New Humans; and exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, among other international venues. Also included are texts and an interview with the artist.

"In the early 1980s, a group of artists, writers and activists came together in New York City to form Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central America, a creative campaign that mobilized nationwide in an effort to bring attention to the US government's violent involvement in Latin American nations such as Nicaragua and El Salvador. Together the group staged over 200 exhibitions, concerts and other public events in a single year, raising awareness and funds for those disenfranchised by such political crises. Art for the Future illuminates the history of Artists Call with archival pieces and newly commissioned work in the spirit of the group's message. In Spanish and English, a wide selection of artists and organizers examine the group's history as well as the issues that were as urgent to Artists Call in 1984 as they are now: decolonization, Indigeneity, collectivity, human rights and self-determination. Artists include: Antena Aire, Benvenuto Chavajay, Leon Golub, Hans Haacke, Fredman Barahona & Christian Dietkus Lord, Sandra Monterroso, Carlos Motta, Claes Oldenburg, Gregory Sholette and Coosje van Bruggen, Maria Thereza Alves, Sabra Moore, Jerri Allyn, Dona Ann McAdams, Rudolf Baranik, Susan Meiselas, Alfredo Jaar, Martha Rosler, Jesâus Romeo Galdâamez and Jimmie Durham"--

A two-decade survey conceived as an inventory of materialsThis volume collects two decades of work by Brooklyn-based artist Sara Greenberger Rafferty (born 1978), known for her material transformation of photographs and use of comedy as artistic strategy. The book is organized by material sensibilities around paper, plastic, glass, metal, fabric scraps and "garbage." Studio Visit reconfigures the format of a monograph, sharing roughly 20 years of artwork through intimate studio documentation, sketches, notes and other ephemera. This chronology is punctuated by full-color case studies of major works in photography, sculpture and installation. With image descriptions by art historian Kate Nesin, Studio Visit also includes new writing by Kristan Kennedy and Oscar Bedford, as well as reprinted texts by poet Lisa Robertson, media scholar Shannon Mattern and more. Studio Visit surveys Sara Greenberger Rafferty's cultural commentary through dynamic and conceptually rigorous art.

The first full-length monograph of Houston-based visual artist Jamal Cyrus (born 1973), this publication features an overview of Cyrus' practice of cobbling modern artifacts that trace the evolution of Black identity as it migrates across the African Diaspora, Middle Passage, jazz age and civil rights movements from the 1960s to now. Published to accompany Cyrus' first career survey exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum, the catalog includes materially diverse and conceptually charged textile-based pieces, assemblages, performances, installations, paintings and works on paper produced in the past two decades, including his ongoing Pride Records installation series. Together, these multidisciplinary artworks demonstrate Cyrus' commemoration, translation and reactivation of sociopolitical struggles in African American history forging a revised chronicle of histories, hybridity and redemption. Exhibition: Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, USA (05.06.-19.09.2021).

The Pragmatism in the History of Art traces the questions that modern art history has used to make sense of the changes overtaking both art and life. The questions combine with case studies as a story unfolds: the work of Meyer Schapiro, Henri Focillon, Alexander Dorner, George Kubler, Robert Herbert, T. J. Clark and Linda Nochlin is scrutinized; the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze and the films of Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard show distinctly pragmatic effects; artists discussed include Vincent Van Gogh, Isamu Noguchi, Lawrence Weiner and Gordon Matta-Clark. The relevance of this material for the art and art-writing of our own time becomes increasingly clear.

Midnight: The Tempest Essays, the second book in Molly Nesbit's 'Pre-Occupations' series, returns the question of pragmatism to the everyday critical practice of the art historian working in the late 20th century. These essays take their cues from the work of specific artists and writers, beginning in the late 1960s, a time when critical commentary found itself in a political and philosophical crisis. Illustrated case studies on Eugáene Atget, Marcel Duchamp, Jean-Luc Godard, Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler, Rachel Whiteread, Gabriel Orozco, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Lawrence Weiner, Nancy Spero, Rem Koolhaas, Martha Rosler, Gerhard Richter, Matthew Barney and Richard Serra, among others, continue the legacy of a pragmatism that has endured while debates over postmodernism and French philosophy raged.

The first monograph for Los Angeles-based artist Pearson documents nearly 15 years of monochromatic photographs, sculptures, and multimedia works. The book highlights his studio and includes artist's reflections and a curatorial essay tracing his varied cultural influences--including music and the culture of Southern California.rnia.

Building upon the 2017 Ballroom Marfa exhibition Strange Attractor organized by sound artist and curator Gryphon Rue, this book brings together an interdisciplinary group of artists and practitioners to investigate the chaos, connections and interpretations that narrate everyday experiences. Strange Attractor includes artworks from Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Thomas Ashcraft, Robert Buck, Alexander Calder, Beatrice Gibson, Phillipa Horan, Channa Horwitz, Lucky Dragons (Luke Fishbeck and Sara Rara), Mark Lombardi, Herbert Matter, Haroon Mirza, Elias Sime, and Douglas Ross, as well as conversations between tropical ecologist Merlin Sheldrake, novelist Chloe Aridjis, and economic sociologist, Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, as well as texts by media art historian, Douglas Kahn, and poet, Bernadette Mayer, among others.

Beloved by collectors and scholars alike, Leiber's beautiful bookseller catalogs shaped the canon of publications. The pioneering San Francisco art dealer, collector, and gallerist who specialized in the dematerialized art practices of the 1960s and 1970s and the ephemera and documentation spawned by conceptual art and other postwar movements, produced a series of 52 iconic catalogs between 1992 and 2010.