Bookworks and Beyond

A richly illustrated account of the life and work of the twentieth-century Mexican artist and writer who reimagined what the book could look like, mean, and do

Ulises Carrión (1941–1989) was one of the most remarkable artists and writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Part of a generation of artists that challenged the boundaries separating visual arts, literature, music, and performance, Carrión worked in a wide range of media: artists’ books, sound poetry, performance art, mail art, video art, theoretical writing, and exhibitions. Today, Carrión’s work is inspiring a new generation of artists, art historians, and cultural practitioners around the world. Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond presents a richly illustrated, panoramic account of his life and work and highlights how he transformed conventional understandings of the book by reimagining it as a material, semiotic, and social platform capable of redefining the artist’s role in society.

A promising young writer, Carrión left his native Mexico in the late 1960s to study literature in Europe. In 1972, he settled in Amsterdam, a progressive city where he could live as an openly gay man, and joined a community of like-minded artists. In 1975, he founded the legendary Other Books & So, a trailblazing bookstore-gallery that became a hub for exhibiting and promoting artistic experiments taking place in Amsterdam and internationally.

Ulises Carrión includes an evocative and representative selection of the artist’s books, artworks, and ephemera, most of them from Princeton University Library, which has one of the largest collections of his work in North America. Featuring original scholarly and literary essays, the book mirrors and engages with Carrión’s own mixture of scholarly and creative work. With its key primary material, interdisciplinary critical perspectives, and new interpretations, the book sheds much new light on an important multimedia artist.

Exhibition Schedule
Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey
February 21–June 13, 2024