GAAG

Published with Printed Matter.

Guided by their belief that art and culture had been corrupted by profit and private interest, the Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG) was established in October 1969 by Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche. Together with members Silvianna Goldsmith, Poppy Johnson, Joame Stamerra and Virginia Toche, they asked how artists could work toward meaningful change, most often through symbolic, nonviolent actions staged in protest of cultural establishments, as well as the US government. This facsimile, recording 52 of GAAG’s political art actions, was originally published in 1978 and again in 2011, and now returns to print for the first time in 15 years. It collects the manifestos, letters and press communiqués issued by the group to President Nixon, the Secretary of Defense and other public figures, alongside photographs by Ka Kwong Hui, Joanne Stamerra and Jan Van Raay, offering a remarkable and candid visual history of the group’s activities and confrontations.