Arcana:

(CAGE, JOHN). Cage, John. Russell Ferguson, Editor.. New York & Los Angeles: Rizzoli International Publications & Museum of Contemporary Art, 1993. First Edition. Oblong 4to. Silkscreened Aluminum Box. Music 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 brand new, most handsome example of this cleverly designed book object still in the publisher's shrinkwrap and obi showing none of the fine surface scratches to the mirror-like finish of its box one typically finds. 0-8478-1772-5 Inventory Number: 026634