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JESSE HULCHER

Current Residence

New York, NY

What is your favorite art book?

'Devastated College Guy' by Jon Clark

What are you currently reading?

'White Noise' by Don DeLillo

What is your favorite art book title?

'Drinkollage'

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Casting the some of the more obvious stuff aside, I'd have to say that Kurt Vonnegut was probably the first author who really spoke to my sensibility at a young age. I feel like I should mention 'Bluebeard' because of its absurd and accurate characterization of the 'Art World'. But I know I read 'Slaughter House Five' much, much earlier and that this was the book that introduced me to writing that was truly creative. It was probably my first experience reading something experimental or something that could be defined as 'post-modern' literature. That's a big deal. That opens the door for everything else. You don't make it to the point where you're writing your own experimental literature without this introduction. You wouldn't even make it to reading anything more experimental than that. The copy that I first read also had a major misprint. One you reached something like page 245, the book started over again at page 186. So, you had to read all of those pages over again in order to finish the book. Initially, I thought this was intentional, being that time-travel was depicted in the novel. So, I was waiting for something to possibly happen differently during the second reading of those pages. But nothing was changed. I didn't realize that this was completely unintentional until a read a different copy of the book a couple of years later, which was not misprinted. This probably added to my early fascination with the book. But I would have been interested regardless. It's sad. It's hilarious. It's weird. It's historically accurate. It's historically inaccurate. It's sweet. It's perverse. It's crass. It's smart. It's all of those things. And it probably taught me that all of these tones can coexist within the same piece or body of work. So, that's also been very influential for me. I like to make work that is rich in this way. I think that art can be, and should be, layered with many different ideas, tones and emotions. As far as my own art is concerned, if I can't find a way to laugh at, or be entertained, by my own misfortune then what have I learned from these experiences? I don't want sadness to be the only emotion that I experience and I don't want that to be the only emotion that a viewer feels when they experience a piece that I've created. When I write about my father's death, there's humor in there too. Maybe I have Kurt Vonnegut to thank for this.

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

I enjoy reading non-fiction and essays about technology and its effects on culture. So, I've got plenty of books about things like the internet, 'social networking' and MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing games) lying around, to name a few topics. I find that stuff the most interesting and the most relevant to my work, which is generally technology-based in some way. SkyMall is a constant source of culturally-relevant inspiration.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

I'm not completely sure what art book would be an absolute necessity to me or to my process, given that I could only choose one. But I guess I can at least say that it would not be Brian Eno's 'Oblique Strategies'. I'm a sucker for strange humor and dead-pan delivery, and I love experimenting with language. So, I might be appeased with a thorough collection of William Wegman's text-based drawings and doodles. That might keep me entertained. I think that has something in common with my favorite artist book in the MoMA Library as well.

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

While I certainly haven't seen everything in the MoMA Library Collection, I was immediately attracted to Pat Shook's 'Universal, religions, symbolism'. I like that it's so simple in both form and concept, and seems closer to irreverence than spiritual curiosity. The collections and arrangements of symbols and icons seem almost careless, bordering on mindless doodling, not unlike the drawings one might imagine 'Beavis and Butthead' would produce using their own cast of nominally 'evil' symbols and icons. This repetitive and obsessive juxtaposition of so many symbols and icons renders them abstracted to the point of meaninglessness, which I'm guessing might be half the point. But I get the sense that there is some kind of perverse enjoyment being taken in the production of these drawings. I find them hilarious in any case. And having been produced in 1980, it's beaten an entire world of hipster zines and comics to the punch by around 30 years. I think there's also something to be said for the tonal ambiguity of Shook's piece in contrast to the expected irony involved in many contemporary pieces of this ilk. That's refreshing right now.

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RICK MYERS

Current Residence

Easthampton MA

What is your favorite art book?

Joseph Plateau 1801–1883 Living Between Art and Science - Maurice Dorikens

What are you currently reading?

The Number and the Siren, Quentin Meillassoux. My Last Sigh, The Autobiography of Luis Buñuel. All English translations of the C.P. Cavafy poem "Before the Statue of Endymion".

What is your favorite art book title?

The Urge to Create Visions

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

My mothers copy of Hundertwasser's Regentag catalogue

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

I just have current research material at the studio, books and ephemera mostly stay at home.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Dieter Roth - Books + Multiples

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Kurt Schwitters in England by Stefan Themerson The main reason is that the reasons intersect. I discovered this book and unknown to each other for years found that a dear friend, Brad Sanders, also had it - but we had never talked about it for nearly a decade. I remembered having a conversation with Matthew Higgs about the Themerson's press, Gabberbochus, and thought so many times since how it made absolutely perfect sense he would have interested in that particular press. The more I got to know him, very slowly, the more it made sense to me why he would have been interested in those books at one point. I found out recently that the conversation I remembered had never happened. The design of the book is so many years ahead of its time - it could have been designed yesterday except it is still too elegant for that. Brad Sanders went off to find the Merzbarn in Ambleside which was completely understated and without fanfare or documentation. He met the gatekeeper by chance who later hid the key for him so he could do a photo-shoot for the last LP sleeve he designed. In Themerson's inimitable style, the book says so much of the depth of the friendship between Themerson and Schwitters - in such a beautiful and unspoken way. File next to The Fall Lyrics, Mark E. Smith, The Lough Press.

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KENNETH GOLDSMITH

Current Residence

New York City

What is your favorite art book?

the internet

What are you currently reading?

the internet

What is your favorite art book title?

The Internet

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

the television

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

the internet and many hard drives

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

the internet

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Link: http://is.gd/rmMnkV I love this because I had only ever heard the MP3 version and I had never seen the actual LP. However, this is a visually aesthetic choice since if I wanted to listen to it, I'd have to go to the MoMA Library and listen to it there instead of listening to it on my iPhone when I'm out in the world. And, given the choice, I'd rather listen to something in the midst of my life rather than have to go to a museum in order to hear it. By extension, I'd rather have the crummy sounding version than the good sounding one (if you close your eyes, it sounds the same). If you are reading this text whilst at the exhibition, you won't be able to hear it either. In order to do so, you'd have to make an appointment to come out to MoMA Queens and listen to it there. You really should hear this piece, though. It's magnificent. In fact, you can hear it on UbuWeb right now: http://ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html Listen while you're looking and you'll get the best of both worlds.

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JARET VADERA

Current Residence

Brooklyn

What is your favorite art book?

Cosmopolitan Modernisms, Edited by Kobena Mercer

What are you currently reading?

Toward Global (Environ)Mental Change: Transformative Art and Cultures of Sustainability, Sasha Kagan;  Poetics of Relation,  Édouard Glissant;  Essays on Contemporary Events: 1936-46, Carl Jung

What is your favorite art book title?

Steal This Book

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

"The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas"

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

I have a cheap printout of a Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Oh, the Places You'll Go!, by Dr Seuss

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

"http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/6081/releases/MOMA_1984_0017_17.pdf?2010 Reading this press release is like watching footage of the calm right before the storm. This document is full of a kind of potential energy.  Perhaps palpable, only through hindsight. And the knowledge that the exhibition would soon be enveloped in fierce controversy and debate. The critiques of the amero-eurocentric bias of the exhibition and of western art history in general ended up provoking one of the most significant turns in the history of art in the US."

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ANNE SHERWOOD PUNDYK

Current Residence

New York, NY

What is your favorite art book?

This is the Way the World Began by Mary Sherwood Wright Jones (my grandmother)

What are you currently reading?

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

What is your favorite art book title?

Floh by Tacita Dean

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

"Critique of Judgment by Immanual Kant The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud Girls Against God, published by Capricious, co-edited by Bianca Casady and me"

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

"Cy Twombly, a retrospective, by Kirk Varnadoe, c1994. Having seen the exhibition, I used this book to prepare for a visit to Cy's studio in 1998. I wrote about this experience after reviewing Cy's sculpture exhibition at MoMA in 2011, the summer he died. Here is a link to my essay: http://annesherwoodpundyk.blogspot.com/2011/09/two-fallen-heroes-edwin-parker-cy.html"

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ARTURO HERRERA

Current Residence

Berlin, Germany

What is your favorite art book?

Philip Guston / Collected Writings,Lectures and Conversations 2011

What are you currently reading?

Apollo‘s Angels by Jennifer Homans and Richard Artschwager Complete Multiples from Brokke Alexander Editions 1991

What is your favorite art book title?

Horizontal Tracking Shots from Mike Kelley exhibition at Gagosian in 2009

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

In the art field it has to be Paul Klee Notebooks

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

In my studio desk besides postcards by Oiticica, Caillebotte, Gego and Antonello de Messina I have the Ferdinand Hodler catalogue from the show: A Symbolist Vision from 2008 and Sol Lewitt catalogue from MASS MoCA 100 Views.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

At the moment it would have to be Matisse and Picasso by Yves-Alan Bois

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Richard Tuttle‘s Memento from Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea i Santiago de Compostela

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RONNY QUEVEDO

Current Residence

Houston

What is your favorite art book?

David Hammons: Rousing the Rubble

What are you currently reading?

Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America

What is your favorite art book title?

Abracadabra: International Contemporary Art

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

The Fire Next time by James Baldwin

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Culture A book on heraldry James Baldwin, Collected Essays La Bodega Sold Dreams by Miguel Piñero A catalogue of a Larry Rivers exhibition

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Inverted utopias : avant-garde art in Latin America / Mari Carmen Ramirez and Hector Olea.

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Metafísica de la prehistoria indoamericana by Joaquin Torres Garcia Torrres Garcia's writing is an investigation of meaning in native south american symbolism and its relation to constructivism as a contemporary artist in 1939. The links he attempts to make are relevant in imagining a conversation between past and present.

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AIDA RUILOVA

Current Residence

NEW YORK CITY

What is your favorite art book?

Georges Bataille Eroticism

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Stop Time by Frank Conroy

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

.....

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Andrei Tarkovsky 'Instant Light'

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Eric Losfeld was a publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material on his publishing imprint Le Terrain Vague. He published everything from Pierre Klossowski's Living Currency to the book Emmanuelle as well as books by Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Luis Bunuel and Ado Kyrou. He was also the publisher of the french film magazines Midi Minuit Fantastique and Positif. I have a collection of different books on his imprint including the film journal, Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962-1971), which I found bound in the MOMA library. Midi Minuit Fantastique was dedicated to fantastique, horror and science fiction films of the 60's. In a way it was a precursor to the french magazine Metal Hurlant, which became Heavy Metal Magazine in the U.S.

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DERRICK ADAMS

Current Residence

Brooklyn NY

What is your favorite art book?

Jamel Shabazz, Back In The Day

What are you currently reading?

Dorothy J. Hale, Social Formalism

What is your favorite art book title?

Bell Hooks, Art On My Mind 

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Wheat, Ellen Harkins Jacob Lawrence American Painter Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Radu Stern, Against Fashion George Latshaw, The Complete Book of Puppetry Interior Design magazine Art Forum magazine

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Dave Hickey, Air Guitar 

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Henson, Jim -- Criticism and interpretation. Henson, Jim -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. I've always been interested in the power of speaking through Avatars and how Henson was able to create an appropriated world within popular culture using characterization.  

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BEATRIZ LEYTON COVACIC

Current Residence

Santiago - Chile

What is your favorite art book?

"Del arte objetual al arte de concepto" by Simón Marchán Fiz

What are you currently reading?

"Estéticas de lo extremo: Nuevos Paradigmas en el Arte Contemporáneo y sus manifestaciones latinoamericanas" by Elena Oliveras

What is your favorite art book title?

evolution of Contemporary Art

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

"Concerning the Spiritual In Art" by Wassily Kandinsky

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Magazines: Lapiz, Art Nexus, La Panera (Patricia Ready Gallery, Chile) Books about Art, Photography, Architecture and Aesthetics. Monographies of contemporary artist like Kiki Smith, Damien Hirst, Chuck Close, Alfredo Jaar, etc. Postals of art exhibitions.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

"Art at the turn of the millenium"

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

"Making Choices: 1929-1939-1948-1955" By Peter Galassi, Robert Storr and Ann Umland Because it raises crossings between modern art, photography, architecture design and cinema, reflecting his simultaneous evolution during specific moments in history, which has influenced us up to today.

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BYRON KIM

Current Residence

Park Slope, Brooklyn

What is your favorite art book?

Robert Smithson, Collected Writings

What are you currently reading?

Carl Phillips, Selected Poems

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Green Eggs and Ham

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Books about New York. Books about color. Books by Tom Perrotta, my college roommate. Various poetry books. Some math books. 

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Robert Smithson: Collected Writings

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Robert Smithson: Collected Writings It is endlessly fascinating. 

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PEDRO RAMOS

Current Residence

Sydney, Australia

What is your favorite art book?

Atlas, Gerhard Richter

What are you currently reading?

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

What is your favorite art book title?

As Far As The Eye Can See, Lawrence Weiner

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Several monographs, exhibition catalogues, artist books, zines, etc. Found miscellaneous books used as reference material, magazine and newspaper cut outs, personal journals filled with notes, references, clippings, quotes, etc. Several magazines (art, architecture, surfing, fashion, etc) and a miniature doll of Lee Scratch Perry.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Atlas, Gerhard Richter

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Jazz, Henri Matisse because I've never been able to hold it in my hand yet the works in that book seem to be burned in the back of my mind.

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ALEC SOTH

Current Residence

Minnestoa

What is your favorite art book?

The Solitude of Ravens by Masahisa Fukase

What are you currently reading?

Submergence by J.M. Ledgard

What is your favorite art book title?

Stuff I Gotta Remember Not to Forget by Darin Mickey

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Richard Long by R.H. Fuchs (1986)

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Along with my photobook library, my workspace holds my collection of photo novellas, photographically illustrated children books, erotica and vernacular photo albums. 

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

The Place We Live by Robert Adams

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

La poupée / Hans Bellmer ; traduit par Robert Valencay. http://arcade.nyarc.org/record=b820346~S9 Part of what I love about books is their privacy. Unlike exhibitions, they are meant for a single viewer. La poupée was designed to be hidden in a coat pocket. It simultaneously evokes pornography and children's literature; two of the primary ways that books open up the dream world. 

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JON HENDRICKS

Current Residence

NY, NY

What is your favorite art book?

Happening & Fluxus edited by Harold Szeemann and Hans Sohm OR Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son, Lucien

What are you currently reading?

MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931; Gutai: Splendid Playground; Modern Art in Eastern Europe: From the Baltic to the Balkans, ca. 1890-1939; View - Parade of the Avant-Garde: An Anthology of View Magazine (1940-1947); Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas; INFINITY NET: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama; The Beat Hotel: Ginsburg, Burroughs, and Corso in Paris, 1958-1963

What is your favorite art book title?

Happening & Fluxus edited by Harold Szeemann and Hans Sohm OR Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son, Lucien

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

Letters to Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man by Thomas Mann Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

You should see... as many as I can possible squeeze in. I'm especially interested in Dada ephemera, Futurist and Surrealist manifestos, original publications of the Viennese Actionists and the Gutai group, PROVO and Situatonist publications, and books on Fluxus, Dada, Eastern European Art, Japanese avant-garde, avant-garde dance, Happenings, avant-garde theater of the 20th century; books on Yoko Ono, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Yoko Ono's Grapefruit

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

GAAG, the Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976 : a selection / photos. by Jan van Raay ; designed by Pat Steir & Paula Greif ; additional photos. by Julie Abeles ... [et al.]. http://arcade.nyarc.org/search~S8?/XGAAG&searchscope=8&SORT=D/XGAAG&searchscope=8&SORT=D&SUBKEY=GAAG/1%2C8%2C8%2CB/frameset&FF=XGAAG&searchscope=8&SORT=D&2%2C2%2C Why? - because Clive Phillpot snuck it in years ago and I always admired him for doing it.

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PAUL RAMIREZ-JONAS

Current Residence

Brooklyn NY USA

What is your favorite art book?

Piero Manzoni's catalogue by Germano Celant

What are you currently reading?

The Port Huron Statement, by Students for a Democratic Society

What is your favorite art book title?

It is not an art book... but How to Do Things with Words by J. L. Austin

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I was 13 or 14 and it took me forever to read and understand. I think I read it 5 or 6 times in a row.

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

Predictably I keep my own archive of books and magazines that mention my work... but that is more for storage than perusal. I keep all my books, magazines, and pamphlets at home -where I do most of my reading. The most useful book I used to have in the studio was a 24 volume outmoded encyclopedia. It was always useful as weights. Nothing works better to hold things down than a heavy book.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Yikes! It would not be an art book. It would have to be a book that I consider a work of art, such as Moby Dick.

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

It's a toss up between:

http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b715712~S8 Because he is one of my favorite authors.

and 

http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b725749~S8

because of the immediacy and directness of the posters.

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JERSTIN CROSBY

Current Residence

Brooklyn

What is your favorite art book?

"Gary Panter (The Book)", by PictureBox, 2011. Looks great on my shelf.

What are you currently reading?

"Drive It Like You Stole It" by Jesse Hulcher

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

"The Illustrated Man", by Ray Bradbury

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

"Smoke Signals" comics by Desert Islands. Zines and comics from my artist friends.  

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

I would try and cast a wide net and go with something like "Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings", but I would probably regret that decision.  

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Randomly came across the catalog for the 1970 MoMA exhibition "Information". Included international emerging artists that interested in communication, mass media, and idea distribution. These are concerns which are common elements of the evolving Acid Rain project I organize, which seeks to distribute alternative media and art through pre-existing media infrastructures, like cable access TV, and now ebooks.

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ROMKE HOOGWAERTS

Current Residence

Long Island City

What is your favorite art book?

I honestly don't think I can answer this. Maybe after I've spent more time at the MoMA library...

What are you currently reading?

Henry Miller, Air Conditioned Nightmare and Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

What is the first book you read that was influential to you?

When I was young I got really abosrbed by Terry Pratchet's books, but to be honest, before that came Dorling Kindersley's illustrated encyclopedias. I was obsessed. As a teenager I had this mad hunt for the Beautiful Losers book. I had been to five cities for it, but everywhere I went it was sold out. I finally found it in Eindhoven. 

What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?

We rotate all sorts of magazines, like Lapham's, Apartmento, Lucky Peach, Conveyor—whatever we can afford—as well as postcards people send us and misprints of our own.

If you could only live with one art book what would it be?

Probably one of those really, really big ones, like Wolfgang Tillmans' Manual, which is over 400 pages. Or one of Phaidon's Vitamin books.

What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?

Irma Boom's famous tiny book. I have this deep curiosity toward it, but I've never actually held it in my hands. Irma Boom isn't really down for handmade books, she feels they need to be consistent because they're mass-produced documents. Makes sense, until you see this book. It's just so small. I need to look inside it.