Cheryl Penn mounted the first Mail Art exhibition in South Africa in 2012, titled Mail Art Makes the World a Town. She is a conceptual artist and independent contract university lecturer/examiner in the practises of art history, conceptual art practice, creative thinking, and aleatory poetry. Essentially, she is a maker of artists' books which are collected globally. Some of her frequent and varied Mail Art projects morph into artists’ books. Her installation, titled An Encyclopaedia of Everything was exhibited in November 2014 at the KZNSA and parts of this library have been exhibited in America, France, UK and Russia.

Books are also acquired through international exchange – the collection currently holds the book works of 70 international artists and numbers over 600 vade mecums (handbooks or guides that are kept constantly at hand for consultation) on many and varied subjects. The focus of her current output is visual poetry, asemic writing and aleatory verse. She has formulated a complete writing system – which she calls The Bhubezi Script.

- Wilhelm van Rensburg

According to Usilses Carrión, Mail Art or ‘Correspondence Art’ is a global cultural strategy which makes use of the postal service. It began in the late 50’s/early 60’s with artists sending postcards, poems or drawings through the post instead of exhibiting them. Mail art became the independent way to snub the gallery system and all those attempting establish themselves as ‘art critics’. Mail art decried all canons of taste and with the price of a stamp being the fee for a one-man-one-piece exhibition between sender and receiver. Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, other Dadaists and certain Italian Futurists used this practice but mail art in its current format is generally attributed to Ray Johnson and the formation of his New York Correspondence School. It has unwritten rules: no entry fee/ no returns/ free documentation to participants involved in a ‘call’ / no judging / no critique and seeks to be the most welcome ‘present’, being about ‘the economy of gifts’.

This part of the exhibition features selected mail art and Zines from the collection of South African artist Cheryl Penn and includes the following artists:

Cleo Allan (USA)
Ernie Bar (Germany)
Richard Baudet (France)
Peter Clarke (South Africa)
Ryosuke Cohen (Japan)
Jean-Pierre Braincells Comes (France)
C T CHEW (USA)
David Dellafiore (Australia)
“E” Ambassade D’Utopia (France)
Karl Friederick Hacker (Germany)
MA Book Object - Edition Footura black Isabelle Paris (France)
Ruud Janssen (Netherlands)
Pieter Kaufmann (Switzerland)
Susanna Lackner / The Assembling Magazine of Planet Susannia (Germany)
Theo Nelson (Canada)
Jurgen O. Olbrich (Germany)
PC TICTAC / sPMATSzine / Zine in a Box (Germany)
Cheryl Penn (South Africa)
Guido Vermeulen (Belgium)
Marie Wintzer (Japan)

Recently I have observed many signs that make me feel as if Mail Art is drawing to a close, and that there are many past publications that could be seen as ‘compilations’ of Mail Art. Quite a few predecessors of Mail Art have passed away, including Ray Johnson (USA), G Deisler (Germany), Carlo Pittore (USA) and others. This is probably also because exchange by mail in the age of computers is considered primitive, and after the end of the COLD WAR between the East and the West, the necessity of correspondence between those two different worlds has been lost.

- Cheryl Penn, 2023

14. Mail Art Makes the World a Town - Cheryl Penn

I began the zine Mail Art Makes the World a Town in order to celebrate the first EVER Mail Art exhibition in South Africa. I thought that perhaps it would just be an edition of one or two, but submissions kept arriving until the post office collapsed which put an end to that exercise! There was a visual poetry edition, an asemic edition – exciting and expensive times! Zines are generally self-published/produced or collated from contributors by the conceptualizer of the project.

The term ‘mail art makes the world a town’ was inspired by a series of lines from the Novgorod Codex, the oldest precisely dated East Slavic book (11th Century). It consists of three bound wooden tablets containing four pages once filled with wax. Its owner had written probably hundreds of palimpsest texts into the wax which had scratched the wood. Only certain lines are translatable including:

The world is a town in which heretics are excluded from the church ...
The world is a town in which blameless people are excluded from the church ...

There are many such lines and I pondered the notion that so long ago this person with no name already had an idea of a global concept. We’ve moved far beyond the historic introduction of the photocopy machine into art methodology. Technology enables us to reach and touch the best the artistic world has to offer on every continent. To me, zines are the perfect gathering place for mail art. All the artists and their work are presented in a coherent, cohesive collection. The quality of zines I have contributed to indicate that perhaps they are the quintessential mail art artist’s books.

15. Erni Bar (Germany)

Penn met Erni very early on in the halcyon days of mail art on IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists). He was quite the character! He sent tea, popcorn, biscuits, postcards, letters, collages, books and debris through the mail – as mail art - he even formed his own fan club. Like Erni, everything was loud and generous. He can’t be tracked down these days, but she’s sure he is still sending work from his mail art turret. Set of 3 cards and 2 envelopes and one postage envelope. Hand cut rubber stamp on main envelope which reads Erni Bar Fan Club. “Feed art to the world/Pedestrian Speech Act”.

16. Karl Friederick Hacker

MA Book Object - Edition Footura black

Unique Mail Art Book Object, bound with commercial hinges dated 2019. Cover, which formed the envelope, is of thin corrugated board. Made of mostly A3 envelopes with stamps and addresses including packaging materials.

17. Wolfgang Günther (Nula Horo) Germany

Unique wooden, shaped, hinged book with 20cm ruler on cover. Text is burnt into wood. Carved wooden rhino on reverse. Signed and dated 2014.

"The 5 reasons why I am involved in Mail-Art since 1980:

• political (peace, human rights, democracy, social justice)
• ecological (non-dissipation of resources)
• artistical (concrete, visual poetry)
• medical (psychological)
• linguistic (esperanto)"

18. Guido Vermeulen (Belgium)

Guido was an extra-ordinary mail artist. His guidelines were: BACK TO BASICS, NO RULES, NO JUDGMENT, NO CONTROL or LEADERSHIP, NO JURIES! NO MONEY OR COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF ART, DEVELOPMENT OF A GLOBAL AND ETERNAL NETWORK, NETWORKING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE MAILING OF ART, NO RETURNS BUT EXCHANGE, PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS, DOCUMENTATIONS, PROJECTS CAN BE LIMITED IN TIME OR ONGOING, ARTISTAMPS, RUBBER STAMPS, COLLAGES, FREE MEDIUM AND TECHNIQUE, ARTIST BOOKS, VISUAL POETRY, ARTIST MONEY (Flux bucks), ADD and PASS ON, ADD PASS ON AND RETURN, COPY or XEROX or FAX art, DIGITAL art, ATC or ARTIST TRADING CARDS, COLLABORATIONS, COMPILATIONS, ASSEMBLIES and other magazines. COPYLEFT instead of COPYRIGHT, so the free distribution of images and texts become worldwide possible.

“I suppose you could characterize Guido's painting style as expressionist. I know he is very interested in dreams as a source for art and poetry, and these particular chapter pages seem like shadowy dream corridors filled with shifting images and scenes. The Michaux quotes work as a counterpoint, Guido's art is taking over when the limits of language have been reached (De Villo Sloan (USA))”.

He did many series of chapbooks/pamphlets and zines, including his Faces series and was the editor of FRIOUR Magazine. He died in 2011.

19. Theo Nelson (Canada)

A life-long fan of radio, nelson began volunteering at CJSW in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2013. He was offered a chance to do a radio show. He asked, “Can I do anything?” The answer was yes, and The Quizzical Suns Musical Revue was born. The show was three and a half hours once a week in the wee hours of Thursday mornings. The program was mostly music but there was a story behind it because nelson wasn’t interested in just doing a music show. In a fictional earth, Theo had a very strange brain lesion. It allowed two-dimensional avatars to cross a dimensional divide from the Republic of Whimsy to theo. The avatars all appeared as little suns with a questioning look on their faces - the Quizzical Suns. They became his co-hosts that communicated to him through word balloons. Many things happened and more than a few characters were introduced during the two-year run of the show. To this day, nelson brings theo and the Quizzies, as he has taken to calling them, back for special shows. Usually the shows will be for CJSW’s annual funding drive and the show for this year’s funding drive promises to be quite entertaining (Email to Penn dated 4/10/2022).

20. John Bennett

A unique book with commercial wire binding comprising the envelopes of John Bennett (USA). Some of his sendings are interspersed between the opened envelopes (including the days of swopping shopping lists...). Other envelopes are partially opened to form pockets for his TLPs. This is book 2 in the series.

Born east of the East River to the murmuring anxiety of waning victory celebrations, bathed in commercially funded electro-magnetic mythologies, bound by beneficent indifference to flit, flail, and fritter my way through atavistic Alexandrian scrolls, I am no artist; I am no scholar; I am a weak lunatic pulse surfing the intellectual float. If this does not meet expectations, let me know. I'll try to knock out more. For the last five years, I have done almost nothing but anti-Trump postcards. My mantra was "You can't satirize a parody, and you can't shame the shameless, but you can vilify the vile. Vilify Now!" (from an email to Penn 20/2/2021).

21. Isabelle PARIS (France)

Mail Art Envelope to advertise an envelope exhibition.

In a communication with Penn, Paris states: "I would be delighted that we became friends through the post-office. And I would like very much that 5000 expected visitors (we hope!) can admire one of your envelopes".

22. Heinz Lotz (Germany)

Lotz was born in 1955 and studied at Wiesbaden and Darmstadt. Since 1985 he has lived and worked in Darmstadt as a freelance artist, and where he established Edition Atelier Heinz W. Lotz. He has staged several exhibitions in Germany and around Europe and creates cover art for several clients. At the start of 2019 he started his own label to present his small handmade editions. Lotz’s interests are in the theme of Venus: Venus from Heinz, is a past project and Venus in Arheilgen is shown here.

23. Cleo Allan (USA)

This is Book 2 of 11 dated 2013. Assemblage titled Retainer of Possibilities. In a note which came with assemblage, Allan states:

"These collage-poems are from a series of automatic and culled poems (lines/stanzas pulled from longer poems). The latter mean to emphasize the nature of constructs of meaning & the malleability of such via context. These short, blunt bursts hope to essentially, eliminate context in an attempt at allowance. I wanted to create a flavor, a tone – an Atmosphere as it were’ a space rife with possibility, conducive to contemplation… (Language language language – the potency of brevity sometimes – A word. A phrase. Period. The emphasis. Punc.tu.ation. As in: staccato sibilance). (cognitive dissonance.) By juxtaposing these words/ideas with (seemingly…) incongruous images, I strove towards an essence regarding the nature of thought – the innately tangential nature of the human mind".

24. Marie Wintzer (Japan)

Two square photographs of scaffolding by Cheryl Penn with a response to each by Marie Wintzer. Responses are in the form of a small map book with fine thread, laminated pages, Japanese paper, fabric, appropriated text and pages of music as well as a unique book titled 'drink this baby, its atomic soda it will blow your mind back to where it was'.

Double sided accordion with collage, wax, thread appropriated a paper and an envelope dated December 2012

25. Ruud Janssen (Netherlands)

Jansen studied mathematics and physics before becoming active in mail art in 1980. From 1994 till 2001 he conducted interviews with Fluxus and mail artists (termed ‘mail interviews’). Such interviews have been published on the web and in booklets from 1996. He is also the originator and maintainer of IUOMA

– International Union of Mail-Artists – started in 1988, and now a well-known site amongst mail artists. But Fluxus and Mail-Art are not the same. Fluxus is the network started with George Maciunas and that led through another thought to the mail-art network where artists communicate and send and receive their art in a direct way. No need for an in-between contact, also no judging of the works. All is accepted in a mail-art project.

The IUOMA is a kind of Fluxus Score. The original score is placed besides this text and deals with the inventing and making new words. IUOMA is such a word that has grown over the years into a union that has thousands of ‘members’ that make it a real network. So a word comes first, and then try to invent a new one and give it meaning. Promote the words and get it into the head of as many others as possible. Examples are shown here: e.g, the Fluxus word ZALOP. Penn decided to follow up on this word and made it a well-known word with the specific meaning. So the connection between a simple Fluxus Score that has been going on for decades is that it resulted in certain words that actually have started new groups, ideas, and illusions (from a communication between Ruud Janssen, Breda, and Cheryl Penn, 29-9-2012).

Fluxus Words are provided by Janssen, and the meanings are determined by Penn. The collection holds the following words: ZOLAI, ZALOPA, ZADIL, ZOLIP, ZALUP, ZULAP, ZALOPY, ZALIP, ZALO, ZALOP, ZALOPAS, JAPOL, ZOPOL, ZOLEP, ZALOPU

An Example of ascribed meaning: ZOLEP - A Dead End. As in – you are wandering/wondering at the labyrinth of life. You think you’re HERE but, it's a Dead End, this place of in-between.

26. Ryosuke Cohen (Japan)

Brain Cell Repulsion is a mail art project begun by Cohen in June 1985. The project is a networked art project where individual artists contribute stamps, stickers, drawings or other images. These are sent through the mail to Cohen, who assembles and prints them as part of each cell. He prints 150 copies (30 x 42 cm) with a small silkscreen system called a Cyclostyle (now out of production). Prints from each edition are assembled into sets of 30 consecutive editions and sent to artists and Mail Art shows around the world along with a documentation list of worldwide contributors. More than nine hundred editions have been published. Cohen describes the origin of the project:

I title my work Brain Cell, because the structure of a brain through a microscope looks like the diagram of the Mail Art network. Thousands of Neurons clung and piled up together are just like the Mail Art network, I believe. Brain Cell is an art experiment in the vein of networked mail art where a network expands from A, copied, forwarded and even returned to the originator. This produces a series of cybernetic cells, which can interact in a non-linear order. Brain Cell enlisted over 6,000 contributors from 80 nations between 1985 and 2002.

27. Zine in a Box

Patrizia (who also goes by the moniker TICTAC) and Penn become friends over 10 years ago, meeting through their mutual connection with mail art. Penn describes her as "a silversmith by trade and meticulous beyond any artist I have ever met." The Zine in a Box series is an art zine with original works from international participants and contained in a box made by hand. The boxes themselves are works of art. At this point there have been 21 editions with each participant receiving one of the editions.

28. Carl [C.T.] CHEW (USA)

Painted stamped and franked envelope with Post office cancellations of Cinderella stamps 12/3/2013

Carl has taught science and maths, obtained a BSc Zoology and an MFA in Printmaking and Video at the University of Washington. According to Penn he "has exhibited in everything, everywhere."

Hi Cheryl Penn! So nice to hear from you. I'm sorry the post office is bankrupt, ours is quite a bit more dysfunctional than it was 20 years ago. I like email as a way to communicate. I'm pretty sure you get my email updates periodically. It's a lot of work to document and catalog Mail Art. I personally wasn't up for it so I sent boxes of my work to other people who indicated they were more into documenting and archiving. You are right, all the exhibition posters are fake. Well, they really exist on paper, poster sized and most of them with two or more copies. … even if I didn't have shows at exciting museums I could still pretend I did! And that morphed into creating posters for fake shows that friends might have. All the best, Carl (from an email to Penn dated 1 Oct 2022).

29. RcBZ (USA)

Cover of the series of 25 Potemkin Postcards

For the purposes of this exercise, mail-art shall mean a single artifact created by one person and sent at the cheapest rate through a postal system to another person. I take such artifacts, a fancy way to say postcards, seriously. Postcards per se, however, are not necessarily mail-art. Postcards must undergo transmogrification to become mail-art. Every postcard consists of front, back, and postage. Those combinations of these three elements which have been produced to create a coherent conceptual scaffold are called mail-art. Aesthetics need not apply. Every postcard must also have a sender and intended recipient. The sender serves the recipient in all ways. Complete transmogrification takes place only when the fusion of artifact and recipient sets off sympathetic synaptic sambas. Ideally, and who aspires to less? such co-cogitations extend themselves imaginably.

30. Peter W. Kaufmann (Switzerland)

Kaufmann was born in Zurich on 4 July 1945 and died on 12 October 2019. He lived and worked as co-owner of an international operating bureau for architecture near Zurich. He has been involved in Mail Art since 1989. His works arise out of 'situations'. With the help of computer-based image editing he made artistamps and 'stamps of distinctive diction'. By being in contact with the world-wide Mail Art network and other international Mail Artists, his artistamps often show a reflection of the works sent to him. Every year dozens of these artistamps were produced in small editions and then sent to selected artists. “Cow f man ism” was a crucial part of his work as it is based on a pun using his own name.

31. Susanna Lackner (Germany)

The Arnolfini Archívum and Planet Susannia produced 51 assembling magazines [Zines] between 2000 and 2017 but Lackner also claims to have “42 odd years of mail art, networkings and related postal ephemera from the A.1. Waste Paper Co. Ltd.”

32. PC (TICTAC) Germany

Artiststamps, also called ‘Cinderellas’ because they have no official postage value, are the artist's interpretation of a postage stamp as an artistic medium. Mostly found in mail art, artistamps have many characteristics. It's debatable who the first artist to produce them was as they have been produced since the late 1800s. At that time, fine artists were commissioned to make advertising posters in postage stamp form. Later, in 1919, the German Dada artist Raoul Hausmann affixed a self-portrait postage stamp on a postcard. This started a long and rich mix of great artists and artistamps. Messages conveyed by artistamps characteristically range from political subversion, irony, and gentle humor to satire, eroticism, and fantasy. Many artistamps are issued by their own imaginary countries.

A note which came with the box [shown] states:

Dear sTAMPSziners i am so glad we are back in action…it took a very long time covid pandemic took over our normal life and we are still dealing with the consequences, …and who would have ever imagined that the same masks that are saving us are causing a big damage to our environment? it also might surprise you to find included in this edition 6 a set by Tiziana Baracchi just before her sudden passing in 2018, she sent me a few sets for future zines. unfortunately the world pandemic was a big stop to my mail art activities. i will send this edition to Ambasciata deVenezia’s Archive, that Tiziana and her husband Giancarlo Da Lio, have founded and he is still curating.