The culminating LAND/ART book, titled "LAND/ART New Mexico", will feature documentation of projects and exhibitions as well as an introduction by Bill Gilbert and Kathleen Shields and essays by Lucy Lippard, William L. Fox, Nancy Marie Mithlo and MaLin Wilson-Powell. The book will be published by Radius Books in partnership with 516 ARTS, the Albuquerque Museum and the University of New Mexico Art Museum. It will be available at bookstores and participating venues starting December 2009.

Bill Gilbert, Lannan Chair in Land Arts of the American West in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico, provides an introduction to Land Art, addressing the history of the genre and the ways in which it has expanded since the term was coined in the mid-1970s. The introduction is co-authored by Kathleen Shields, an independent arts writer and curator.

MaLin Wilson-Powell, a curator, art critic and educator, provides an overview of the projects and exhibitions in LAND/ART, placing them in the context of art history and the history of the genre.

William L. Fox, director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, writes on “Art of the Anthropocene.” He explores ways in which the history of land in art has evolved in tandem with how science has sought to provide a picture of the world. Among other themes, he discusses how nascent environmental sciences in the early to mid-twentieth century informed artists from Grant Wood to Georgia O’Keeffe, and how an environmental ethics of “leave no trace” may be seen to parallel contemporary art practices of performance and installation.

Nancy Marie Mithlo, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explores artistic production as a means of overcoming social irresponsibility, looking at how certain identities are privileged, and discussing what Native actors/image makers do with these monopolized images as they relate to the concerns of the environment.

Lucy Lippard, internationally known writer, activist and curator, writes on the question “What does land art mean in contemporary culture?” with a special focus on New Mexico.

Grasslands / Separating Species
Exhibition catalog
Available now. $20



The catalog for Grasslands / Separating Species will be published by Radius Books in conjunction with the exhibition at 516 ARTS (October 3 - December 12, 2009). It will not simply document the two-part exhibition, rather, it will be a unique art book featuring the work of photographers: Michael P. Berman, Krista Elrick, Dana Fritz, David J. Taylor and Jo Whaley. Essays will be featured by William deBuys, a renowned writer and conservationist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work for the Nature Conservancy and for the Conservation Fund in North Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico has led to the permanent protection of public and private lands totaling over 150,000 acres. A recipient of a 2008-09 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant in the Creative Arts for Nonfiction, deBuys will be writing about Michael P. Berman’s explorations of the Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands on both sides of the US/Mexico border. A resident of southern New Mexico, Berman has spent nearly thirty years photographing the arid border regions of the American Southwest. Like deBuys, he also received a 2008-09 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant in the Creative Arts for Photography. Mary Anne Redding, curator of Grasslands / Separating Species, will also contribute an essay for the catalog that will focus on the artists in Separating Species. Redding is the Curator of Photography at the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. She recently curated Through the Lens: Creating Santa Fe on view at the Palace of the Governors through October 25, 2009 and edited a companion book published by the MNM Press, February 2009. Redding’s essay will explore what happens when “there is no one left to cry for the rain.”

For more information on Radius Books visit www.radiusbooks.org

image: Krista Elrick, Snow Geese Panorama I, photograph

smudge studio: Limit Case postcards
Artist edition of 30 cards
Available now



Support LAND/ART and receive smudge studio's artist edition of 30 postcards depicting "Limit Case" landscapes and land uses encountered on their recent journey in the Southwest. To view the postcards and order your set of 30 for a tax deductible donation of $20, please visit www.smudgestudio.org/postcards

For more information about smudge studio visit www.smudgestudio.org

Land Arts of the America West
by Chris Taylor and Bill Gilbert, University of Texas Press
Available now. $60.

"Land Arts of the American West" documents the development of the program started by Bill Gilbert at the University of New Mexico in 2000.
The book is structured around discussions between Co-Directors Bill Gilbert and Chris Taylor and writer Bill Fox probing the philosophical and logistical underpinnings of the program and includes interviews with guest artists Matt Coolidge, Mary Lewis Garcia, Hector Gallegos and Graciela Martinez, essays by guest scholars Jerry Brody, Bill Fox, Lucy Lippard and Ann Reynolds, site descriptions by Amanda Douberly and selections of student work and journal entries.

download bibliography

download book flyer