ALISON KNOWLES PERFORMANCE AND BOOK RELEASE

PRINTED MATTER, INC. 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd), NYC
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2009, 5-7PM

Please join Sara Ranchouse Publishing at Printed Matter, Inc., 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd), NYC, on Friday, November 6 from 5-7pm, for the publication release of "Plah Plah Pli Plah" by artist Alison Knowles. Knowles will be present to sign copies of her book.
"Plah Plah Pli Plah" documents the sounds, performance and material of Knowles’ handmade paper and dried bean instrument “Bean Turners.” It includes transcriptions of the instruments’ sounds, images of Knowles performing, scores, and a “bean page instrument,” fabricated especially for this project at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago.

Knowles and others of her Bean Turner Ensemble will perform her instruments throughout the evening. Don’t miss this opportunity to see and hear Alison’s amazing instruments live and to support the publication of "Plah Plah Pli Plah."

If you won’t be in New York, you can purchase "Plah Plah Pli Plah" and other of Knowles’ books online at: www.sararanchouse.com. Shipping is free within the US (mention this email) if you place your order before November 30, 2009.

ALISON KNOWLES is a visual artist known for her soundworks, installations, performances, publications and association with Fluxus, the experimental avant-garde group formally founded in 1962. Since the early 1960s, she has traveled and performed throughout Europe, Asia and United States. Some of her seminal book projects include "Notations," a book of experimental composition that she designed and co-edited with John Cage (1968, Something Else Press), and "The Big Book" (1967), a walk-in book comprised of 8 ft. pages around a center spine, permitting the spectator/reader to physically go inside of the book. "Bean Rolls," a canned book, appeared in the Whitney Museum exhibition The American Century (2000), and in 1968, "The House of Dust," programmed with the help of composer Jim Tenney, was recognized as the first computer poem on record, winning her a Guggenheim Fellowship. For more information about Alison Knowles, please visit: www.aknowles.com.

SARA RANCHOUSE PUBLISHING was founded in 1993 to promote printed matter, especially the book, as a space in which to make and read visual art and unconventional texts. We are interested in found, rearranged and recontextualized texts, images and materials; in the significance of the physical make-up and production requirements of a publication in relation both to its content and to its subsequent functional and economic life; and in the pursuit of collaborative projects, especially those that resuscitate material that has been under acknowledged. Alison Knowles’ early score and publication, "The Identical Lunch" (1969), is one of our favorite books of all time and we are so pleased to be able to offer a Knowles title ourselves, forty years later! For more information about Sara Ranchouse Publishing, visit: www.sararanchouse.com or write info@sararanchouse.com.

PRINTED MATTER INC. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists’ books and other artists’ publications. Printed Matter maintains a public reading room where over 15,000 titles by 5,000 international artists are available for viewing and purchase. For more information about Printed Matter, Inc., please visit: http://printedmatter.org.