Mel Bochner: Photographs and Not Photographs (fraenkel Gallery [first edition]

Mel Bochner (born 1940) coined some of Postminimalist and Conceptual art's most characteristic strategies--the gallery as subject, language as material, the photo documentation of works as the work itself, the appropriation of ephemeral materials by other artists--and directed those strategies towards a radical excavation of all that had been rendered peripheral to art's content. In the mid- to late 1960s, Bochner became deeply involved with photography, producing a groundbreaking group of photographs that hover tantalizingly between painting and photography. Mel Bochner: Photographs and Not Photographs presents reproductions of these early works, as well as the artist's classic 1970 essay "Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography)" and a selection of wall drawings and paintiings. Bochner has collaborated closely on the design of this beautifully produced volume, the cover of which is made of sturdy plexiglas.