ABSTRACT
Publications were one of the pivotal networking strategies that enabled mail artists to exchange artworks and information across borders, allowing for international collaboration. Those that circulated within the mail art network articulated ideas about communication and mass media; anti-institutionalism and the boundaries of artistic practice; and the central principles of publishing in and of themselves. In this chapter, the publications Hexágono ’71 (Edgardo Antonio Vigo), Commonpress (revolving editors), Schmuck (Beau Geste Press), and Ephemera (Ulises Carrión) are considered as key examples of the ways experimental art and ideas were exchanged within artist networks, while they also mark the increasing internationalism stimulated by the boom in printing and communications technologies. The circulation of such magazines bolstered the expansion of the mail art network, while also blurring the boundaries between the private and public aspects of mail communication. These magazines shared the common aims of distributing uncensored information across vast distances, as such they provide an account of an incipient globalization of art networks and discussions of translation between distinct locales.
