The World Exists to be Put on a Postcard: Artists' postcards from 1960 to now

Jeremy Cooper

Softcover | 22.4 x 1.8 x 22.1 cm | 160 pp

Thames & Hudson | 2019 | 9780500480434

Written by artists' postcard expert and collector Jeremy Cooper, the book was published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.  

The accessibility and familiarity of a postcard makes it an artistic medium rich with potential for subversion, appropriation or manipulation for political, satirical, revolutionary or playful intent. The inexpensiveness of production encourages artists to experiment with their design; the only artistic restriction: that it fits through a letterbox. Unlike traditional works of art, the postcard requires nothing more than a stamp for it to be seen on the other side of the world. Made of commonplace material, postcards invite handling, asking to be picked up, turned over, and shown to friends to be included in our lives.

The world exists to be put on a postcard features postcards, several reproduced at actual size, designed by notable modern and contemporary artists, including Carl Andre, Eleanor Antin, Joseph Beuys, Tacita Dean, Gilbert & George, Richard Hamilton, Susan Hiller, Richard Long, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Dieter Roth, Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, Rachel Whiteread and Hannah Wilke, many of which are published here for the first time. Organized thematically into chapters, such as Graphic Postcards , Political Postcards , Portrait Postcards and Composite Postcards, this book demonstrates the significance of artists postcards in contemporary art.