THEY (BOOKS) ARE PERHAPS THE LEAST IMPOSITIONAL MEANS OF TRANSFERRING INFORMATION FROM ONE TO ANOTHER (SOURCE).

Lawrence Weiner, ‘Idea Poll: Statements on Artists’ Books by Fifty Artists and Art Professionals Connected with the Medium’, Art-Rite, New York, 1976/7.

On Tuesday, April 10, American sculptor Lawrence Weiner, one of the most important exponents of conceptual art, will be inaugurating a new exhibition space located in uptown Lisbon called Appleton Square. The exhibition is a partial selection of the artist’s books which span across his highly prolific and influential production.

Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1942, Lawrence Weiner is considered to be one of the most significant artists of our time. Since 1967, he has made exclusive use of language to “make art that helps people understand the dignity of objects in relation to themselves”. This he conveys through a wide variety of media, including video, film, books, audio tapes, sculpture, performance, installation and graphic art.

In 1968, the Louis Kellner Foundation and Seth Siegelaub published his first book, Statements, a seminal conceptual artist’s book of the era. Prior to this publication, Weiner had already been producing and distributing Xeroxed pamphlets and broadsides in consonance with one of his primary concerns, that his work enter the stream of culture, that it find an audience, be read, but most importantly, that it be shared.

Lawrence Weiner has always liked books for being presentational and conversational, rather than impositional. In line with this reasoning, his publications have no preface, no explanation; they are devoid of prerequisites for reading, so the person who takes an interest in his book(s) is freed of particular constraints and at liberty to accept or reject what he or she encounters. Weiner conceives his publications and his books as items of use that impart information to somebody. He is motivated by the thought of their being found and passed on from one person to another, rather than their being shelved and forgotten.