Allen Ruppersberg The New Five Foot Shelf, 2001
Specifications
Installation, 50 volumes and 44 posters
Variable dimensions
50 volumes, each 20.2 x 13.5 cm, 232 pages
The signatures are double-stitched with linen thread.
The spine is rounded by hand.
The end papers are 220 g laid paper.
The binding cloth is wine colored Hansalein.
Gold foil-blocked types on front cover and spine
Red and yellow headband
Volume 1 to 49: contains 4 printed 8-page signatures and 25 blank 8-page signatures, for a total of 232 pages.
Printed on white Arches Expression 120g
Approximatively XX newspapers obituaries facsimiles inserted throught the volumes
Volume 50: contains 352 pages, 344 pages contains colour photographs of the studio.
Printed on matte coated Main Club 150g
44 posters, each 147 cm x 90 cm
Inkjet print on paper semi-matte Perfect Proof Part # 15436, 185 g
Printed by Epson ink jet plotter
Production
Edition of 10 copies and 2 artist's proofs
Certificate numbered and signed by the artist
Produced and published by Editions Micheline Szwajcer & Michèle Didier in 2001
©2001 Allen Ruppersberg and Éditions Micheline Szwajcer & Michèle Didier
NB: All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the artist and the publisher.
Selected collections:
CAAC, Sévilla
Mamco, Geneva
Musée d'Art Contemporain, Marseille
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The New Five Foot Shelf is an installation composed of 50 volumes and 44 posters reproducing the 1/1 scale studio located on Broadway at number 611 in New York that the artist occupied for about fifteen years ; Ruppersberg mapped it in 1998 and left it for good in December 2000.
Since the studio does not exist anymore, the installation therefore takes on a commemorative and autobiographical significance and remains the sole testimony of this "Merzbau": an "autonomous and developmental work, a living organism manifest of a complex web of formal and informal association".
The 50 volumes associated with the posters are a facsimile of the 50 books that made up the anthology which was present in the artist's studio. The content of the anthology has been substituted in its entirety for a text written by Allen Ruppersberg. This text contains 5 chapters, each developing itself horizontally throughout the volumes. The New Five foot Shelf subtitled Memoir / Novel / Index is, as the artist says, "a reorganisation of multiple elements: a collection of notes, letters, quotations, photos, words, ideas, stories, poems. It is, in short, a personal reference library".
The New Five Foot Shelf presents all 44 posters reconstructing the workshop with the 50 volumes of the anthology.
The New Five Foot Shelf is emblematic of Allen Ruppersberg's work since it takes a truly biographical and self-reflexive dimension. It is also one of the longest texts written by the artist and it contains numerous inserts echoing his private life (including obituaries and correspondence with his mother).
7.09 x 9.84 x 1.97 in ( 18,5 x 25 x 5,5 cm )
10.63 x 13.78 x 1.57 in ( 27 x 35,5 x 4 cm )
9.84 x 12.2 x 1.97 in ( 25 x 31 x 5,5 cm )
Poster : 35.83 x 28.74 in, book : 10.63 x 8.27 in
12.99 x 11.81 x 4.33 in ( 33 x 30 x 11 cm )
Sign 21.65 x 35.43 in, each poster 22.05 x 13.78 in
9.06 x 6.3 x 1.97 in ( 23,5 x 16,5 x 5,5 cm )