Printed matter, nomad matter: On the ideological possibilities of artist’s publications

Abstract

In a dictatorial or repressive context, movement can be said to be one of the most fundamental and disruptive forms of (aesthetic) resistance. Through exile, migration, travel or correspondence, bodies, ideas and objects are permanently displaced, searching constantly for lines of flight that are impossible to pin down by any political regime. When associated with art, the elusive and ever-changing nature of movement can transform objects in events, creating anaffective network of images, words, objects, ideas and relations. The ideological potential of movement can be found acutely in artist’s publications, orinart in the form of printed matter, such as artists’books or mail art, which have the potential tocircumvent physical limitations imposed by repressive apparatuses. In addition, movement triggers imagination to put together all the elements of the collaborative network thus constructed and set it inmotion. This article takes a closer look atthe material and historical circumstances of these art objects that become deeply imbedded with ideology. By looking at the triangulation movement-time-space, I aim to investigate some of the ways women artists used printed matter to revise, confront and debunk totalizing narratives, such as women’s role in society, capitalism, slavery, colonialism, etc., narratives thatsustained and were themselves sustainedbythe repressive and dictatorial regimes that operated in Portugal and in Brazil.