Ray Johnson
Mail Art for Neophytes, Part One: An Initiation
“We all know about Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo that were packed with drawings for painting ideas. Today’s mail artists only wonder why the hell he didn’t mail that severed ear off to Gauguin in Tahiti.”
“Projecting off the page into the world”: Dick Higgins publishes Ray Johnson
In an essay and a letter by Dick Higgins, a look into the creative collaboration that birthed The Paper Snake by Ray Johnson, officially out today from Siglio.
Fifty Years Ago Today: Ray Johnson Reviews / Ray Johnson Reviewed
“The Paper Snake is copyrighted, I don’t know why—that seems excessive caution.” Praise and bewilderment from critics of the book by Ray Johnson as well as Ray Johnson’s “Review,” 1964.
From the Introduction to Not Nothing: Selected Writings by Ray Johnson
“Valery describes the language of poetry as ‘abrupt returns of the fruit to the wild state.’ I can’t think of a better description of Johnson’s work.”
Excerpt from “A Ray Johnson Story” by Kevin Killian
“In Ray Johnson, how many times do you see the final words of his sentences, speeches, questions, adumbrated by white space or by the rumble of a new thought.”
A Serpentine Assortment: Ray Johnson and Snakes
In the spirit of Ray Johnson, a collection of Johnsonia and academic research that engage with the many forms of “the snake.”