DAILY MIRROR
[Quadrat-Print / Quadrat-Blatt / Feuilles-Cadrat / Kwadraat Blad]
Diter Rot [Dieter Roth]
Diter Rot [Dieter Roth]: DAILY MIRROR [Quadrat-Print / Quadrat-Blatt / Feuilles-Cadrat / Kwadraat Blad]. Hilversum: Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co, n.d. [1965]. First edition [limited to 1,000 copies]. Four-page editors' note in Dutch, English, French, and German. Publsihers chipboard mailer. 60 sheets (unbound as issued) of appropriated typo-pictorial designs by the artist printed via offset on newsprint rectos and versos. Editors' note yellowed and spotted. All sheets toned to edges, with tiny [1/16"] edge nicks to the final ten leaves. Chipboard mailer complete but in fair condition only: sides split and well worn from original mailing, with an official USPS "received in bad condition" stamp to mailing panel. original craft tape has been slit to open package. Decidedly uncommon with mailer, note and complete set of sheets. Overall, a complete set in very good condition.
[60] 9 13/16 x 9 13/16" (25 x 25 cm) newsprint sheets of enlargements from "Daily Mirror Book 1961" which was included in Dieter Rot's Collected works, Vol. 20, 1972. In 1961 Roth made a number of miniature books, including the "Daily Mirror" book, from trimmed-down pages of various daily newspapers and magazines. These books cannot be read in any traditional sense as they contain only snippets of images, articles, and advertisements. Words are divorced from their meanings, turned into visual noise.
Blown up well beyond their true size, the pages become fields of abstract pattern and truncated forms, turning the news into a meaningless, orderless jumble and deadening its original function. Drawing on his advertising background, Roth recognized the ultimate goal of the Daily Mirror was to sell papers, and writes in his introduction: "INSTEAD OF SHOWING QUALITY (surprising quality) WE SHOW QUANTITY (surprising quantity). I got this idea (Quantity instead of Quality) in this way: 'QUALITY' in BUSINESS (f.i. advertising) is just a subtle way of being Quantity- minded: Quality in advertising wants expansion and (in the end) power = Quantity. So, let us produce Quantities for once!"
The artistic practice of Dieter Roth (Swiss, b. Germany, 1930 - 1998) encompassed everything from painting and sculpture to film and video, but it is arguably through his editioned works -- prints, books, and multiples -- that he made his most radical contributions. These experiments include the use of organic materials in lieu of traditional mediums, including book-sausages filled with ground paper in place of meat, and multiples of plastic toys mired in melted chocolate, as well as a dazzling array of variations on printed postcards.
The Quadrat-Prints are a series of experiments in printing ranging over the fields of graphic design, the plastic arts, literature, architecture and music. They are edited by Pieter Brattinga and are not for sale.
The Quadrat-Prints appear at irregular intervals. They are published only after the most stringent requirements of intellectual and technical production have been met.
Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co. published 34 Quadrat-Prints between 1955 and 1974, with Brattinga serving as general editor and individual designers given free reign with their chosen subjects in the visual arts, literature, music, architecture, typography, etc. None of these publications were for sale -- they were distributed to friends and business associates by De Jong as elaborate self-promotions. |