INTRODUCTION

Mail Art – also known as postal art and communication art – is defined as any form of art sent through a postal system. Initiated in the early 1940s by Ray Johnson, this medium was eagerly embraced by Fluxus artists in the late 1960s, subsequently becoming a worldwide network. Many artists embraced its possibilities in projects and exhibitions in the 1980s and 90s. Recently, under the worldwide Covid lockdown, artists have rediscovered its communicative strength.

Advances in telecommunications have resulted in mail art embracing new ways of 'sending' artworks. Beyond stamped envelopes, telegrams, faxes, and more recently digital email messages, SMSes and WhatsApp texts now enable image messaging. In addition, the type of art sent through the postal system has expanded dramatically over the years to include postcards, postage stamps, rubber stamp marks, Xeroxed copies, pamphlets, brochures, decorated envelopes and other ephemera. The title of the exhibition Mail Art/ists Books, intimates another innovation of the medium through its creative morphing into the genre of artists' books.

This exhibition showcases works from the collection of mail art donated recently to the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts by Cheryl Penn, those from Kim Lieberman’s practice, the quirky types of 'mail' of Walter Battiss and his imaginary Fook Island, and a selection of mail art by international and local artists.

Wilhelm van Rensburg