New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu



 

Princeton University Library presents largest U.S. retrospective of the work of Ulises Carrión to date

originally published: 02/15/2024


"Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond" exhibition at Milberg Gallery, Firestone Library. Photo by Brandon Johnson

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Princeton University Library (PUL) presents “Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond,” the spring exhibition in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery at Firestone Library. Curated by Sal Hamerman, Metadata Librarian for Special Collections at PUL, and Javier Rivero Ramos, a recent Ph.D graduate from the Department of Art & Archaeology, who is now Assistant Curator at Art Bridges Foundation in Arkansas, the exhibition opens on February 21, 2024 and runs through June 13, 2024.

Ulises Carrión Bogard was one of the most influential of all modern artists engaged in the book, and this new exhibition will be the largest United States retrospective exhibition of his work to date. It will explore Carrión’s pioneering reinvention of the book as a material and social platform, primarily featuring Princeton’s extensive holdings, drawn from the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology and PUL’s Special Collections. PUL is steward to one of the most substantial collections of Carrión’s book and mail art in any American library.

The exhibition will also incorporate key audio-visual, performative, and printed works on loan from the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (New York), and LIMA (Amsterdam).

Ulises Carrión; Mail Art and the Big Monster, 1979; Poster

Another feature of the exhibition will be a hands-on activity area where visitors can participate in creating and sending their own mail art using postcards and stamps inspired by Carrión’s work. The stamps were made at the PUL Makerspace, which will also host a stamp-making workshop this spring.




Please support the advertisers at New Jersey Stage!
Want info on how to advertise? Click here



An accompanying exhibition catalog, published by Princeton University Press, was made possible by the Friends of Princeton University Library. Other programming related to the exhibition will include a panel discussion to launch the accompanying exhibition catalog on March 6, and an artists’ talk with Alex Turgeon on April 8. Staff from the Center for Book Arts in New York will also lead selected public tours.

Born in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1941, Carrión emigrated to Amsterdam in 1972 and joined a dynamic multinational community of artists pushing the boundaries of artistic practices. He eschewed conventional galleries and museums in favor of collaborative “artist-run spaces” such as his own bookstore-gallery Other Books and So. Carrión also became heavily involved in mail art, a participatory and network-driven practice rooted in the exchange of artworks through the postal system and premised on questions of authorship and originality, that was also an important avenue of communication for artists living in countries governed by authoritarian regimes. Carrión's community-driven practice fostered extensive cross-cultural exchange between experimental artists working in Latin America and Europe.

“Carrión raised profound questions about the institutions and social conventions that shape our interactions with books, which he put into practice by stewarding artist-run organizations that reimagined how works are created, collected, and exhibited. It is hugely appropriate that this exhibition takes place in a library,” said Rivero Ramos.

Ulises Carrión, Aart van Barneveld (d. 1990), Salvador Flores; Ephemera, No 5, 1977-78; Magazine

In an essay titled “The New Art of Making Books,” Carrión reconceived the book not as a mere physical support for literary expression but as a material, semiotic, and social medium in its own right. His multimedia practice—which encompassed artists’ books, sound poetry, performance, videos, mail art, theoretical writing, publishing, curating, and archiving—is emblematic of the ways that Carrión and his colleagues embraced and radically reconsidered the book within the broader interrogation of language, time, and media that characterized the artistic zeitgeist of the time.

Hamerman added, “The links between culture, knowledge organization, and power that Carrión explored in the 1970s and 1980s remain relevant today. Working in the extraordinary cultural ferment of the alternative art scene of the 1970s, Carrión reimagined a place and a practice not only for artists, but for everyone who has ever flipped through a book. Throughout his work, Carrión challenges us to envision the limitless possibilities that lie in and beyond the book.”

Members of the public are welcome to visit the exhibition between 10:00am and 6:00pm on weekdays and from 11:00am to 6:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Guided tours are available to the public.

For more information about the exhibition, tours, and related programming, please click here.

Ulises Carrión; Sistemas, 1983; One of three artists’ books




Please support the advertisers at New Jersey Stage!
Want info on how to advertise? Click here




 

EVENT PREVIEWS

The

The Art House Gallery presents "Art Outside of Architecture" - a group exhibition featuring the Architects that designed The Hendrix

(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Art House Productions presents "Art Outside of Architecture," a group exhibition showcasing the work of the architects that designed The Hendrix building where Art House Productions resides. The exhibition will be on display at the Art House Gallery from July 5-27, 2025 and features twelve architects stepping out of the structural realm and into a world of personal expression in this dynamic group exhibition.



Geoffrey

Geoffrey Doig-Marx's "Portraits in Color and Light" opens at the Gallery at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey - A Fusion of Comedy and Heart

(MADISON, NJ) -- New York-based artist, educator, choreographer, and self-described "Renaissance Man" Geoffrey Doig-Marx (GDM) brings his dynamic exhibition Portraits in Color and Light to The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey as the second art installation in the Theatre's 2025 Season. This striking collection of twenty-six original paintings debuts with the Theatre's production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again], running July 9–27. It's a pairing that promises a bold celebration of irreverence, reflection, and artistic energy.



Ocean

Ocean County Library Toms River Branch presents Laurelton Art Society Exhibition

(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Works by members of one of New Jersey's venerable art associations will be on display throughout the month of June in the Ocean County Library Toms River Branch. The Laurelton Art Society Exhibition will occupy the Second Floor Gallery, June 9 through July 29, 2025.



Union

Union County presents "Art of All Abilities Exhibit" in Celebration of Disability Pride Month

(ELIZABETH, NJ) -- July is Disability Pride Month, and in recognition of the occasion, the Union County Board of County Commissioners invites residents to visit the 2025 Art for All Abilities Exhibit. This special exhibit features 20 original works created by Union County residents of all abilities and will be on display throughout the month of July at the Commissioner's Gallery.



Rowan

Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum Announces NJ Arts Annual Artists

(GLASSBORO, NJ) -- Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum is excited to announce the participating artists who will be included in the 2025 New Jersey Arts Annual for Fine Art, presented in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, opening Saturday, June 7th from 4:00pm-7:00pm, and on display through August 2, 2025.



FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


Art

Art on Screen: The Danish Collector

Monday, July 14, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Monmouth University - Pollak Theatre
400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
category: art


 

Art

Art on Screen: The Danish Collector

Monday, July 14, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Monmouth University - Pollak Theatre
400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, NJ 07764




 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901



FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 10:30am
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901



Vivid

Vivid Summer Solos: My Name is Lucy Barton

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 @ 6:30pm
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
68 Elm Street, Summit, NJ 07901



Indigenous

Indigenous

Wednesday, July 16, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Lizzie Rose Music Room
217 E. Main Street, Tuckerton, NJ 08087