The Flue was a periodical published between 1980 and 1989 by the venerable institution Franklin Furnace Archive, which was founded in 1976 by the artist Martha Wilson to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, cultural bias, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. The periodical took on a multitude of media forms and functions, from organizational newsletters to exhibition supplements and catalogs, to scholarly surveys of contemporary and historical artists’ book movements. This shapeshifting approach was supplemented by artists’ projects and a changing cast of editors and designers, most of whom were artists. In total, there were sixteen issues of The Flue across six volumes, and all have been digitized and made available online for the first time here.

This issue includes an announcement for the exhibition The Avant-Garde Book: 1900-1945, which was curated by Jaroslav Anděl and includes descriptions of works by Henry Chotkowski, Gearóid Dolan, Kaoru Hirabayashi, Shelagh Keely, Lisa Kotin, Mark W. McGinnis, Susan Mogul, William Pope.L and James Calder, Jim Reva and Lisa Weger, and others.

20 pages
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Paperback
1989
Editor: Martha Wilson
Designer / Illustrator: Isabel Samaras
Publisher: Franklin Furnace

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Managing Editor (2021): James Hoff
Managing Designer (2021): Dan Bourke