Richard Kostelanetz
Assembling
ASSEMBLING PRESS BOOKS NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH ARCHAE EDITIONS: CATALOG 2004
ARCHAE EDITIONS, known already for distributing Richard Kostelanetz books that are otherwise unavailable, has taken over the inventory of Assembling Press publications with which he was involved. Between 1970 and 1982, Assembling Press published thirteen world-famous annuals of "otherwise unpublishable" (aka avant-garde) art and literature, Assemblings. Instead of selecting from submissions presented to it, Richard Kostelanetz (and, at various times, Henry James Korn, Mike Metz, Scott Helmes, and David Cole) invited potential contributors to submit a thousand copies of whatever they wanted to include, and these feasty festivals of visual and verbal waywardness were alphabetically assembled into 8 1/2" by 11" books. Evaluating these alternate activities, the American poet and critic Karl Young wrote in the critical magazine Margins, "In 1917 Ezra Pound hoped to edit magazines as whole entities--having the kind of completeness, formal integrity, structure and continuity you find in a good novel. Since [Pound's] The Exile we have had--as far as I know--only one gut innovation in magazine editing technique. That came in 1970 with the founding of Assembling."
Assembling Press has also issued books of poetry, fiction and criticism and other related experimental works in several media. These publications have been reviewed, exhibited and distributed around the work. In October, 1978, all of Assembling Press's works were displayed at the the Pratt Graphics Center in New York City; it was, as far as anyone can tell, the first time since the Dial that a small American literary press was honored with an institutional retrospective.
Among the Assembling Press publications now available through Archae Editions are:
Assembling (1970), 162 pp., the opening salvo, $30.00)
Second Assembling (1971), 180 pp., $24.00
(with a Stan VanDerBeek fold up only available in a few copies, $50.00)
Third Assembling (1972), 280 pp., $30.00
Fourth Assembling (1973), 274 pp., o.p.
Fifth Assembling (1974), 284 pp., $30.00
Sixth Assembling (1975), 288 pp., $30.00
Seventh Assembling (1977), 396 pp., $35.00
Eighth Assembling, A-J, (1978), $30.00
Eighth Assembling, K-Z, (1978), $10.00 (to serve an increased number of contributors, the Eighth number appeared as two volumes, alphabetically divided, the first becoming mysteriously scarcer than the other)
A Critical (Ninth) Assembling (1979), an assembling printed (instead of compiled) of camera-ready critical commentary on experimental literature around the world, $15.00
Tenth Assembling (1980), produced with the St. Paul visual poet Scott Helmes, $15.00
Eleventh Assembling: Pilot Proposals (1981), "If you could apply for a grant of $500,000, what precisely would you propose to do?" $10.00
Assembling Assembling (1978), a retrospective produced on the occasion of our retrospective exhibition, 96 pp., $10.00
Complete Assembling (1970-82), approx. 3,000 pages, collecting the first thirteen volumes (except Fourth, which has very scarce), $250.00. Only a few complete sets incoluding Fourth remain, $1000. Reassembling Assembling, $5,00. The pages of our previous volumes will be realphbetized into a continuous sequence, done only to order, library bound probably in more than one binding.
NOTE: When stocks of any number of Assembling are exhausted, it will not, cannot, be reprinted.
OTHER ASSEMBLING PRESS PUBLICATIONS NOW AVAILABLE THORUGH ARCHAE EDITIONS
POETRY & FICTION:
Sweep (1979), by Paul Zelevansky, 96 pp., $6.00.
Lists (1974), by Jean-Jacques Cory, 32 pp., $5.00.
As If a Footnote to the Final Glory (1974), by Donald Porter, 16 pp., a complicated witty fiction about footnoting, $2.00
Proceedings of the National Academy of the Avantgarde (1975), by Henry James Korn, 32 pp., $5.00
Poontoon Manifesto (1975), by Henry James Korn, index cards, signed & lettered, 1-25, a pioneering modular fiction, $50.00
Rumor Transmissible Ad Infinitum in Either Direction (1976), by Raymond Federman, a fiction published on a poster 22 3/4" by 23 1/2", $5.00, mailed folded in quarters; $10.00 mailed uncreased in a tube.
EXPERIMENTAL PROSE:
Difficult Act To Follow (1974), by Henry James Korn, 80 pp., a collection of shorter prose, both fantastic and representational, hardbound, $15.00; paper, $10.00.
Muhammed Ali Retrospective, by Henry James Korn, 96 pp., meditations on an American myth, $30.00
Corroboree (1977), by Kenneth Gangemi, 96 pp., a comic masterpiece by the author of Olt and Lydia, $3.00
Can You Tell Me How What You Are Doing Now Is To Do Something Philosophical?, by Peter Barnett, a unique synthesis of philosophy and conceptual art, $20.00
BOOK ART:
Model/Hideout (1972), by Mike Metz, 24 pp., five booklets by an important process-situation artist, $25.00
Selected Structures (1977), by Mike Metz, 144 pp., bound to be wider than it is long, a retrospective of sculptures and performances, $20.00
Time Trap (1980), by Peter Barnett, a philosophical essay about time perception in the form of an inventively designed book, in an envelope, $10.00
Visual Play by Elizabeth Cook, exquisite book-art with animals, fish, plants and birds, $15.00
The date of this catalog is January 2004. Prices subject to change upon increasing scarcity. Later volumes of Assembling, including Samizdat & All Species, as well as Assembling Press books by Rose Drachler and Charles Doria, are available from Dr. Doria, 506 Ft. Washington Ave, 2-C, New York, NY 10033. For the complete list of books and related literary material available through Archae Editions, please consult its page on this website. Please make all checks out to Archae Editions. Retail customers in New York State or City must add appropriate sales tax(es). Discounts only to dealers, paying in advance. (Only defective copies can be returned.) With every order above $50.00, we add gratis, upon request, a copy of RK's Recyclings Vol. 1 (Assembling Press, 1974). On all domestic orders, please include $2.50 for postage and packing; on foreign orders, $3.50.
ARCHAE EDITIONS, P.O. BOX 444, PRINCE STREET, NEW YORK, NY USA 10012-0008