Ray Johnson wrote poetic texts and letters and integrated language and a unique system of cryptic signs into his work. Considered by many as the ‘father of Mail Art’, as early as 1953 Johnson began sending highly conceptual images/texts to friends, often encouraging the recipient to ‘add to’ the work, to ‘please send to’ someone else or to ‘return to Ray Johnson’. Forming the New York Correspondence School in 1962, Johnson established an enormous network of participants throughout the world—one that remains active even after his death. Between 1963 and 1965, Ray Johnson printed thirteen pages of his book about death with the Pernet Printing Company, then housed on 120 Lexington Avenue at 28th Street. His title, which designated the thirteen unbound pages as a book, is A Book About Death, yet also A Boop About Death and A Boom About Death. In A Book About A Book About Death close friend and author Bill Wilson elaborates on each of the pages of A Book About Death.

TITLE: A Book About A Book About Death
AUTHOR: Ray Johnson & Bill Wilson
PUBLICATION DATE: 2009
PAGES: 58
DIMENSIONS: 16 x 20 cm
LANGUAGE: English
ISBN: 978-94-90629-01-4