here & now

We are currently in a reissue renaissance. In August, there was the Nakahira book, and Errata Editions has been publishing their wonderful Books on Books series since early 2009. Some of these projects are more democratic -  Books on Books is more about disseminating rare and out-of-print (read: prohibitively expensive) photobooks to everyday enthusiasts than about publishing fetishistic objects. Primary Information’s reprint of the seminal 70s art magazine Avalanche is most certainly the latter – at a limited run of 1000 and with a price tag of $150, the boxset is sure to become a collector’s item. But reintroducing it to the public domain is most certainly a wonderful thing.

Published and edited by the late Willoughby Sharp and Liza Béar, Avalanche was a radical break from the tone and style of ArtNEWS and ArtForum. It was a magazine for artists, not critics, and featured landmark interviews (always our favorite) that illuminated the creative processes of a range of seminal artists. Its clean, distinctive design and refreshing use of illustration and photography made its pages museum walls of their own. Most importantly, it has had an enduring influence on subsequent art publishing (from mono.kultur and BOMB to the alternate universe of exhibition space that is self-published zines), which can now be felt by a whole new generation.

The reissue features exact facsimiles of the first eight issues, and a single volume of the last five.

Available here.