Chicago Project
Art by Walter de Maria

The SMS Portfolios were a collaboration between William Copley & Dmitri Petrov which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press, working with some of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Exemplifying the community ethos of the '60s, Copley sought to produce a new form of art journal that would bypass traditional institutions to distribute the artist's work directly to its audience instead. Copley accepted contributions in almost any medium, carefully reproducing each artwork in his Upper West Side studio. All contributors, from the world-renowned to the obscure, received the same sum of $100 for their work. Presented without comment, each portfolio was mailed directly to subscribers every two months. Only six portfolios were produced, in an edition of 2000. Each portfolio contained from eleven to thirteen artist objects.

This SMS edition contains sketches, a photograph, and correspondence between de Maria, Jan van der Marck and Duchamp concerning the exibition "Art by Telephone," based on an early Moholy-Nagy project. De Maria's proposal was to install a telephone booth in the center of the Chicago Museum of Centemporary Art exhibition space with instructions to visitors to answer if the phone rang. Only de Maria, who would call at random from New York, had the number.

The Letter Edged in Black Press; SMS 1; 1968; xerox copies in envelope; 12" x 9"