Ulises Carrión

In March 1975, three weeks after opening Other Books and So, the first bookshop dedicated to artist's productions of all sorts, Ulises Carrión sent out more than 1,000 letters asking artists, writers and publishers to send him “the sort of books you make.” A few days later, packages started arriving from North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Japan and Australia. They didn't stop for the next three years, at which point Other Books and So was closed and turned into an archive. Personal Worlds or Cultural Strategies? is the most complete compilation of that collection, and includes Carrion's writings and essays, in which he defines and interprets the bookwork. But as he himself once said, “I firmly believe that every book that now exists will eventually disappear. And I see here no reason for lamentation. Like any other living organism, books will grow, multiply, change color, and, eventually, die. At the moment, bookworks represent the final phase of this irrevocable process. Libraries, museums, archives are the perfect cemeteries for books.”