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Re: Rolywholyover-A Circus. A Book.



Tyler Gillies writes:

> Have any of you spent considerable time with this
> book? If so, I'd 
> love to hear more about its contents.  Of course,
> the best way for me 
> to find out about its contents is to purchase a copy
> for myself, but 
> I'm not sure I've got the cash to spend. 

I have held the box once; Joseph Zitt had a copy. It
is reminiscent of the Flux boxes; full of many things.
I didn't have time to examine any of the articles
closely, but it was a marvelous thing, very inspiring.
Now that I think about but, could it have been an
inspiration for Monk Mink Pink Punk #6
(http://home.flash.net/~jronsen/mmpp.html)? Although I
remember the idea of a loose collection of pages owed
more to not wanting to staple another 100 copies, but
the Rolywholyover box, and the Flux boxes were of
course always in the back of my mind.

Here is an article by Fay Sweet about the box?s
conception:
http://www.newalbion.com/artists/cagej/silence/html/1995q3/0015.html

The description at Arcana Books ($95, you can get it
elsewhere online for $65) reads: 
"(CAGE, JOHN). Cage, John. Russell Ferguson, Editor..
ROLYWHOLYOVER A CIRCUS. New York & Los Angeles:
Rizzoli International Publications & Museum of
Contemporary Art, 1993. First Edition. Oblong 4to.
Silkscreened Aluminum Box. Artist Monograph. As New/No
Jacket - As Issued.np, loose printed contents laid
into an Aluminum Box. Designed by Catherine Lorenz.
This is the spirited exhibition catalogue for a huge
traveling retrospective that celebrated John Cage, his
collaborators, influences, and influence on twentieth
Century culture. Composer, lecturer, musician, artist,
theoretician, Zen student, mycologist - all aspects of
his life and art are represented here in a patchwork
quilt of texts and images jammed into a sleek,
mirror-like metal case. Every day in each of the
show's venues (MOCA, the Menil Collection, the
Guggenheim, Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center in
Japan, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art) the art
objects shifted in placement and installation - a nod
to Cage's pioneering use of chance, and randomization
as compositional elements. This catalogue/object
functions much the same way, with nearly fifty pieces
of printed ephemera laid in, with no hierarchical
order. The primary texts here include; Paying
Attention by Anne d'Harnoncourt, nothingtoseeness by
Julie Lazar, John Cage in the Social Realm by Laura
Kuhn, UNCAGEDWORDS by Joan Retallack, Cage and
Counting by Mark Swed, Anarchy by John Cage, An
Autobiographical Statement by John Cage, Macrobiotic
Cooking by John Cage, The Agenbite of Outwit by
Marshall McLuhan, What Should I Eat? by Andrew Weil,
M. D., Chronological Table of John Cage's Life by
Ellsworth Snyder, Zen and Dhyana by Daisetz T. Suzuki,
The Dancer and the Dance by Merce Cunningham in
conversation with Jacqueline Lesschaeve, and The
Director's Forward by Richard T.Koshalek of MOCA.
Artists' work in the show (but not necessarily in the
catalogue) included Cage, Josef Albers, Antonin
Arthaud, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, William S.
Burroughs, Joseph Cornell, Willem De Kooning, Maya
Deren, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Buckminster
Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Arshile Gorky, Peter
Greenaway, Richard Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Allan
Kaprow, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Franz Kline, Sol
Lewitt, Kasimir Malevich, Robert Motherwell, Barnett
Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Harry
Partch, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Ad Reinhardt,
Mark Rothko, Robert Ryman, Erik Satie, Jean Tinguely,
David Tudor, Cy Twombly, Edgar Varese, La Monte Young,
and many, many others. A beautiful copy of this
cleverly designed book/object. 0847817725 Book Number:
001426"

For the most comprehensive index to online information
about Cage, see
http://www.flash.net/~jronsen/cagelinks.html    

-Josh Ronsen
in Austin, Texas

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