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This faux magazine was produced for distribution at the ‘Ghosts of the Academy’ exhibition. It was originally intended solely as a play on the early Gilbert and George publication

‘A Day in the Life of George & Gilbert the sculptors’, Autumn 1971, ART FOR ALL, 12 FOURNIER STREET.

I was amused by the cult of personality as a work. It was to become a major factor in the art world although I admit I could not see it at the time. I was very interested in the typographic play that they used which was ‘old fashioned’ at the time: lower case type being a popular stylistic tendency in the 60’s: no capital letters for anything. I enjoyed the concept of style as art, particularly in the performance work of Bruce McLean one of their contemporaries at St. Martin’s School of Art.

The concept of ART FOR ALL struck a chord with my own feelings: how art might interact in public places rather than be destined for museums. This had been the main impulse for me to explore the way in which paintings might relate to architecture in earlier works.

The reproduced photographs were intended as a play on performance art of the time and in some way mimic the type of photograph in the Gilbert and George work.

The artist David Russell agreed to write a play on an art historical/academic take on one of the works in the show. I think he reveals a great many strands of interest that were beginning to come into focus amongst artists and critics at the time. It is totally convincing to me: it may be that many people would not have realised it was a joke. It was none the worse for that.