Monograph about the building at 80 Wooster Street and its inhabitants, weaving together first-person interviews with archival documents and photographs. The first of 16 artist coops started by Fluxus founder George Maciunas, Fluxhouse Coop II spurred the development of SoHo and provided a blueprint for the spread of loft conversions worldwide. Written by Roslyn Bernstein and Shael Shapiro and published by Jonas Mekas Foundation in 2010, the 4to, 300-page softcover book, replete with 133 illustrations (including 47 in color), tracks the ways that legal formalities and business decisions intersected with art creation and community building in the evolution (or devolution) of the experimental artist live-work cooperative from its inception in 1967 to 2008. Original residents of the building included Jonas Mekas, Trisha Brown, and Robert Watts. Beyond this, the building drew a host of avant-garde figures to Jonas Mekas’s Cinematheque, the ground-floor space that hosted happenings, film screenings, dance and theater performances, and art shows. With an invitation card to a book signing and Maciunas exhibition at the Jonas Mekas Arts Center in Vilnius, Lithuania. Signed not only by the two authors on the half-title page, but also by the publisher Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), the Lithuanina/American filmmaker, poet, artist, film critic, and co-founder of Film Culture magazine, who was the Special Guest of Honor at the event. Additionally signed by Lithuanian politician and musicologist Vytautas Landsbergis. Gentle bumping to extremities. Creasing to invitation.
Monograph about the building at 80 Wooster Street and its inhabitants, weaving together first-person interviews with archival documents and photographs. The first of 16 artist coops started by Fluxus founder George Maciunas, Fluxhouse Coop II spurred the development of SoHo and provided a blueprint for the spread of loft conversions worldwide. Written by Roslyn Bernstein and Shael Shapiro and published by Jonas Mekas Foundation in 2010, the 4to, 300-page softcover book, replete with 133 illustrations (including 47 in color), tracks the ways that legal formalities and business decisions intersected with art creation and community building in the evolution (or devolution) of the experimental artist live-work cooperative from its inception in 1967 to 2008. Original residents of the building included Jonas Mekas, Trisha Brown, and Robert Watts. Beyond this, the building drew a host of avant-garde figures to Jonas Mekas’s Cinematheque, the ground-floor space that hosted happenings, film screenings, dance and theater performances, and art shows. With an invitation card to a book signing and Maciunas exhibition at the Jonas Mekas Arts Center in Vilnius, Lithuania. Signed not only by the two authors on the half-title page, but also by the publisher Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), the Lithuanina/American filmmaker, poet, artist, film critic, and co-founder of Film Culture magazine, who was the Special Guest of Honor at the event. Additionally signed by Lithuanian politician and musicologist Vytautas Landsbergis. Gentle bumping to extremities. Creasing to invitation.
