Mail Art Periodicals - MoMA

"Negative Aspects of Assembling magazines." (Four statements including,
"Because some networkers want to have all the assembling zines that are out
there, they send in the amount of required works to any editor. The quality
comes secondly, and if a large part of the assembling zine is filled like that, this
triggers others to do the same."). "Positive Sides to Assembling Magazines."
(Three statements including, "Some see the collection of assembling zines as a
nice thing to do. If you like collecting, it sure gives you a nice overview of the
different styles and techniques that are used in the network. Some earlier
assembling zines are already collected by archives. That happens when an artist
gets noticed by institutes. But art-dealers sometimes want to get their money
back, and sell assembling zines where 'big names' appear in. I('m) not sure what
to think of that.").
Part 8 (April 1996). Computer Print and Rubber Stamp. 11 3/4"x8
1/4". 5 pages. "This 8th article deals partly with the publishing of all the texts at
TAM-Publications & the problem of mail art & money." "What is Tam-
Publications?" (Seven statements including, "All texts that I produce and print get
a number. Because I don't use the official institutes to print my publications, I
sometimes use the term ISSM (opposed) to the regular ISSN numbers that the
'real' printing-houses use."). "Money and Mail Art?" (Eleven statements including,
"But do mail art & money mix? Every mail artists I know is only spending money
on this mail art. I have never met someone that is making a profit on the mail art.
That is, the active mail artists. Of course it is possible to sell mail art. Some
people oppose to this, others just do it to get rid of 'their collections'. There are
examples of 'archives' that have been sold. Normally then the collection gets
destroyed because the buyer mostly is looking for mail from artists know(n) in the
'traditional art-world.' I heard from Crackerjack Kid that some early Ray Johnson
letters are being offered for big money."
Part 9 (May 1996). Computer Print. 11 3/4"x8 1/4". 3 pages. "This 9th
article is especially written for the Mail-Art project 'Future Communication'
organised at the Denmark's Post Headquarters in Copenhagen-Denmark,
August 1996...It is not the first time that the postal office is arranging a mailart
exhibition. I have been and/or participated in similar exhibition in The Hague
(Netherlands), Paris (France), Bern (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium). It seems
that the postal services here in Europe are getting very much interested in this
mail art thing."
Part 10 (May 1996). Computer Print. 11 3/4"x8 1/4". 6 pages. "This
10th article actually is a collection of older statements I sent into the network of
colored papers...Older Mail-Art Statements from Ruud Janssen. Over the years I
have written several short statements. This list contains most of them as far as I
could find them back. The date I wrote the statement is also mentioned. On
22/05/1994 I started with putting all the statements I once wrote into one big file.
I printed them out on colored paper now and then and scattered them into the
network. End of 1995 my old computer broke down and I lost a big part of this