Since 2006, Primary Information has fulfilled a singular role in our support of artists, providing access to out-of-print publications and commissioning new books by contemporary artists. We have published over 175 publications; supported more than 1,000 artists, including the payment of more than $250,000 in artist fees; and distributed 175,000 copies of our print titles. In addition, our free online publications have reached an audience of over 250,000 people.

Primary Information sells all of our books at cost, enabling us to keep them accessible for artists, students, and others who may not otherwise be able to afford them. As a nonprofit, we are dependent on the generosity of our community in upholding this commitment to the idea that art and knowledge should be affordable, and donations are essential to maintaining our support of artists.

Your fully tax-deductible donation will prove invaluable to our critical support of artists and the medium of artists’ books for years to come. Additionally, you can support the organization by joining as a subscriber to receive all our annual titles.


Primary Information is humbled to share testimonials from our community of artists, writers, and readers whose continued support makes our publishing mission possible.

  • “Primary Information’s subscription is a staple in my studio. There is pretty much always one of their publications out on the table where I take breaks, eat and think.”
    — Tauba Auerbach
  • “Through the lens of history, PI’s unique production continually highlights the cultural, communal, and political importance of books. Whether it be in the form of gorgeous facsimiles, new exciting sourcebooks by significant, often undervalued artists, or experimental collaborations with younger artists, I buy almost all of their books and support PI, so should you!”
    — Fia Backström
  • “Primary Information provides an essential service to scholars, artists, writers, teachers like me who depend on them for sources that are hard-to-get and out-of-print, plus new works that would not come to my attention otherwise. Their curation is completely in sync with the current moment—what we need to be reading now— publishing beautifully made books of great quality and value. Subscribe.”
    — Gregg Bordowitz
  • “Making books with Primary Information has been one of the best parts of my studio practice. Making these books made me reconsider what I do as a painter, in the same way painting made me think about making books in a new way. I think PI is the best!”
    — Sarah Crowner
  • “Primary Information’s subscription is the best deal in my lifetime. improves my brain, reputation!”
    — Bridget Donahue
  • “What would we do without Primary Information? PI has been providing us with publications we didn’t know we absolutely had to have for 15 years and counting. Their breadth of research and knowledge is a true treasure for their readers.”
    — Gabrielle Giattino
  • “There is that great Charles Ray sculpture from 1997, Unpainted Sculpture, which consists of a meticulous life-size fiberglass cast, made piece by piece, of a car that was completely totaled in a deadly crash. The common analysis of the work is that Ray was testing whether the ghost would transfer in the process. Primary Information does similar work toward an inverted objective. They exactingly recreate vehicles of life and prove that soul can survive in the page.”
    — Maxwell Graham
  • “Primary Information (re-)publications seem uncanny, like, say, a Robert Gober seemingly-porcelain vintage loft sink on exhibit. In many ways they’re indistinguishable from the originals except they have a further dimension or two; partly due to how the books chosen for reproduction are usually deeply of their times, the re-creations seem to mean more things than the original books. The whole catalogue is like some kind of contemporary witchery: meticulous attention to detail in the service of an aesthetic enabling time travel in the past half century of largely obscure, marvelous—or at least fanatical—biblio artwork.”
    — Richard Hell
  • “I own more than 40 titles published by Primary Information. As someone who loves books, I can’t think of a higher recommendation than that!”
    — Matthew Higgs
  • “When I first came to NYC in 2011 as a student I had no idea of the inner-workings of the networks and communities that built the vast onslaught of information that was being poured into my senses throughout my short trip of one month. Later when I returned in 2015, I learned what artist books were but did not know how or where they fit within everything that I learned up to that point as “art”. When offered to create a postcard for the artists project that Primary Information presented for a number of years, the vast network was shared with me. Through the engagement with looking at all the artists who had shared an image it presented a relationship to PI that it is giving, supportive, generative, and reflexive. Now coming to learn more and more about the organization and the mission put forth, even in 2022 I continue to learn more and more about community, historical precedent, and leaders present and passed on through the work that Primary Information is sharing with the world.”
    — Kahlil Robert Irving
  • “So many influential artists’ books end up being more myth than fact. Their scarcity and cost means few people are able to have a copy. For 15 years now, Primary Information has been bringing these books back into affordable physical reality, an invaluable service to young artists and book lovers everywhere.”
    — Randy Kennedy
  • “Primary Information is one of how many American not-for-profit publishing organizations started by people born after the 1960s? That have survived for more than a decade? And they publish incredible artist books (new and long out of print) by living artists. Artists who are still alive! If I ever get around to making an artist book, I would want to publish it with Primary Information!”
    — Josh Kline
  • “Thank goodness for aptly-named Primary Information! By impeccably republishing foundational source material for conceptual art, artists’ books and other avant-gardes of past decades they’ve made the meaty content of these now-pricey and rare but essential original documents available to a wide audience at affordable prices. Not just students and scholars, but anyone interested in one of the most stimulating periods of modern art history owes PI an enormous debt. May they prosper for another 15 years and counting!”
    — Barbara Moore
  • “For the past 15 years Primary Information has been excavating and celebrating the art and literature of our past and current centuries. For me the work they do comprises a treasure trove of inspiration and education.”
    — Aram Saroyan
  • “It’s not that I have money to give, it’s that I’m compelled because they sling dope product.”
    — Hamza Walker
  • “Primary Information preserves the history of contemporary avant-garde art practice by making out-of-print materials available again. Why is this important? Because ideas change the world.”
    — Martha Wilson

Primary Information is grateful for the generous donations from the following individuals and institutions over the years:

    • Max Abelson
    • Rosaire Appel
    • Anthony Allen
    • Augusto Arbizo
    • Cory Arcangel
    • Michael Asher Foundation
    • Tauba Auerbach
    • Pedro Barbosa
    • Erica Baum
    • Robert D. Bielecki Foundation
    • Charles Broskoski
    • Eric Brown
    • Spencer Brownstone
    • Ben Brunnemer
    • Galerie Buchholz
    • DB Burkeman
    • Eric Ceputis
    • Nicholas Chiarella
    • Mary Clarke
    • Eileen & Michael Cohen
    • Anne Collier and Matthew Higgs
    • Sarah Crowner
    • Catherine Damman
    • Dan Desmond
    • Neil Doshi
    • Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation
    • Zöe and Joel Dictrow
    • Empty Gallery
    • Nathaniel Farrell
    • Charlotte Feng Ford
    • Ford Foundation
    • Helen Frankenthaler Foundation
    • Mark Fredricks
    • Zanna Gilbert & David Horvitz
    • Photi Giovannis
    • Alex Glauber
    • Ann Goldstein and Christopher Williams
    • Greenwich Collection Ltd.
    • Greene Naftali
    • David Grubbs
    • Gabrielle Giattino
    • Raphael Gygax
    • Jane Hait
    • Ryan Haley
    • John Hamilton & Margo Somma
    • John W. and Clara C. Higgins Foundation
    • Scott Hoffman
    • Jonathan Hope
    • David Joselit
    • Jeffrey Kastner
    • Joshua Katzeff
    • Miriam Katzeff
    • Julia Klein
    • Elinor and Tom Kovachevich
    • Byron Kim
    • Stephanie LaCava
    • Deirdre Lawrence
    • Margaret Lee
    • Miyoung Lee
    • Galerie LeLong
    • Mary Lum
    • Candice Madey
    • Tiona McClodden
    • Tristin and Martin Mannion, Boston
    • Nion McEvoy
    • Metabolic Studio
    • Jonathan Miller
    • Rick Myers
    • National Endowment for the Arts
    • Michael Newton
    • New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
    • New York State Council on the Arts
    • Orbit Fund
    • Saul Ostrow
    • Benjamin Piekut
    • Paul Pincus
    • Donald Porteous
    • Stephen Pratt
    • PPOW Gallery
    • Jeff Preiss
    • Jacob Proctor
    • Carolyn Ramo
    • Michael Ringier
    • Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
    • Barry Rosen
    • Nicole Russo
    • Peter Russo
    • Lori Salmon
    • Ann Schaffer
    • Julie Schumacher
    • Max Schumann
    • Adam Sonderberg
    • Christine Steiner
    • Stichting Egress Foundation
    • Seth Stolbun
    • Gloria Sutton
    • Linda Trimbath
    • Jaap van Liere
    • Jacques Louis Vidal Charitable Fund
    • Felix Vogel
    • Dennis Walker
    • The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
    • Allison Weisberg
    • Wilhelm Family Foundation
    • Tyrone Williams
    • Andrew Witkin
    • Martha Wilson
    • Howard Wolfson
    • Candace Worth
    • Begum Yasar
    • Lim Kyung Yong