Monthly Statement:
January 2006

OBJECT # 17
DATE SENT: January 31, 2006
SENT TO: Joe Flaherty
SENT VIA: US Postal Service

DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT: Gummed mailing label, 3x5”, with heavy red border, thin white border, and thin red border on exterior edges. Interior is white. Stamped on the top is the return address: “Writers & Books, 892 Clinton Ave. So., Rochester, NY 14620” made with a red rubber stamp. Below that is the address, written in ball point blue ink: Amy Stark
Center for Creative Photog.
843 E. Univ. Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85719
The address is hand-written and is in my handwriting. Lower right hand corner has red stamped letters WRI and other stray marks. Back surface is still gummed. (Tested to verify)

ORIGIN AND APPROXIMATE DATE OF POSSESSION OF OBJECT: Found approximately five years ago in the book “The Black Tarantula” by Kathy Acker, which is in my collection of books. Originally it was a label used to ship books for Writers & Books, a not-for-profit small press distributor in Rochester, NY, where I worked from the fall of 1980 until the spring of 1982. Among other duties I was the primary book packer and shipper and this label was one that I either neglected or had made a duplicate of while employed there.

MOST RECENT LOCATION OF OBJECT: Mixed in among a pile of papers on the left hand side of my desk in the south east corner of my studio

RELATION OF OBJECT TO RECIPIENT: Joe Flaherty founded the Book Bus, which traveled around Western New York State during the late 70s. It helped distribute prose, poetry, and artists’ books from small press publishers. It was affiliated with the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY at 31 Elton Street when I first arrived as a student there in September 1977. I became friendly with Joe mainly due to our common love of literature and hoop, which we played together most every Sunday I was in Rochester between the fall of 1977 through my final departure in the Spring of 1982. (Parenthetically, Joe had a great inside game and quite a good outside shot as well, and at the time my own outside shot was, I must say, deadly). In the fall of 1980 I was hired to help with the move as the Book Bus became Writers & Books, an independent bookstore and entity serving the same purpose as its predecessor. Though no longer traveling, Writers & Books hosted readings, classes, art shows, and provided small hand-outs for coffee to the local alcoholics who frequented the area around Clinton Avenue and the Star Market. Additionally, there was always a comfy chair or two for patrons to curl up in as they read through some of our selected books while listening to great music on our tape deck. I continued working at W&B for the duration of my time in Rochester, through my thesis and after finishing the program at Visual Studies Workshop. It was one of only two full time jobs I have ever held in my life outside summer jobs in high school and college. It was perhaps my best job ever due to the circumstances of my life and the easy manner, humor, and intelligence of Joe, who was a great conversationalist and had an interest, it seemed, in everything I did. My pay at the time (I believe five dollars per hour) was quite adequate to support myself and my small one-bedroom apartment on Laburnam Crescent, a short walk from the bookstore. I was mainly responsible for packaging books that would be shipped to individuals and organizations via UPS. The gummed labels were stamped with the return address of Writers & Books and each recipient’s name and address was hand written, usually by me, on the label. Each morning when I arrived, there would be a pile of invoices waiting and I would fill each order by getting the book or books from the stock shelves and packing them in brown wrapping paper and book cartons and then affixing the label. Most orders were for a book or two, but many were for large orders. Each package, however, got the exact same red-bordered label pasted to its exterior. This particular label somehow became a bookmark for my personal copy of “The Black Tarantula” by Kathy Acker, which I don’t recall if I actually finished reading or not. The addressee, Amy Stark, was likely an employee of the Center for Photography in Tucson and I have no recollection of which book she ordered or if, in fact, she ever received it. Perhaps I made another label for Ms. Stark or it was a mistake or oversight. I regret the error, if there was one, and I hate to think that I might have caused any inconvenience to the Center, or worse, a cancellation of their account with Writers and Books due to lax service. I would, of course, be willing to make restitution to either entity if this error is of my doing. Alternately, I would be willing to return to my former post and find, package, and ship the proper book to the aforementioned addressee all at my own expense. I would expect in return only the space to work at the present Writers & Books location with a Coltrane tape playing, and later a quick game of H-O-R-S-E with Joe to see if either of us could reconstitute our former prowess on the hard court.

RESPONSE OF RECIPIENT:

DATE OF RESPONSE:

Process: My plan is to de-accumulate objects I now own during the course of the exhibition year. I will photograph the selected object then send the object with a letter to a person who has some relationship to the object or whom I think might be interested in the object. The letter will discuss the project and tell the receiver they can keep the object, destroy it, give it away, recycle it or anything else they choose. I will ask them to document it in the place they now have it and send their image and/or written description back to me of what they did with it and where it is. I plan on de-accumulating an average of one object per week. The new images/descriptions will be placed in a plastic folder and exhibited along with a photograph of the object as it was in my possession.