CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/16/2019

In honor of John Giorno (1936–2019)

Featured spreads, both by Giorno Poetry Systems, are reproduced from Information, MoMA’s fiftieth anniversary facsimile edition of the legendary catalog for curator Kynaston McShine’s 1970 survey of conceptual art—the first of its kind at a major institution. Featuring work by pioneering conceptualists such as Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Hanne Darboven, Sol LeWitt, Lucy R. Lippard, Helio Oiticica, Yoko Ono, Adrian Piper, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Smithson, Lawrence Weiner, John Giorno (of Giorno Poetry Systems) and many more, the catalog is one of the most satisfying examples of highbrow low-fi publishing that we’ve ever encountered. If you’re into facsimile editions, this one’s simply excellent. Giorno’s “Dial-a-Poem,” represented by the spreads reproduced here, invited museumgoers to dial the telephone number 956-7032 to hear poems read by John Ashbery, William Burroughs, Bernadette Mayer, Frank O’Hara, Bobby Seale, Anne Waldman and others.