Otto Piene: Lichballett
A leading figure in multimedia and technology-based art, Otto Piene was a founder, with Heinz Mack, of the influential Düsseldorf-based Group Zero in the late 1950s. This publication highlights the artist's ongoing exploration of light as an artistic and communicative medium.
In the PEI Library

Cindy Sherman
Published to accompany the first major survey of Cindy Sherman's work in the United States in nearly 15 years, this publication presents a range of work from the artist's 35-year career. Showcasing approximately 180 photographs from the mid-1970s to the present, including new works made for the exhibition and never before published, the volume is an exploration of Sherman's sustained investigation into the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation. The exhibition runs through June 11, 2012. 
In the PEI Library
More on the exhibition and catalogue

Whitney Biennial 2012
The 2012 Biennial features works by approximately 50 artists working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, dance, and performance. Elisabeth Sussman (co-organizer of the politically charged 1993 Whitney Biennial) and Jay Sanders provide a joint essay, and a group of art historians and critics contribute entries on common themes and ideas from the represented artists' techniques and influences. In addition, a significant portion of the catalogue is devoted to original contributions from each of the participating artists. The exhibition runs through May 27, 2012.
In the PEI Library
More on the exhibition and catalogue

Print Out: 20 Years of Print 
Over the past two decades, the art world has broadened its geographic reach and opened itself to new continents, allowing for a significant cross-pollination of post-conceptual strategies and vernacular modes. Printed materials, in both innovative and traditional forms, have played a key role in this exchange of ideas and sources. This exhibition runs at MoMA through May 14, 2012. 
In the PEI Library
More on the exhibition and catalogue

Dance/Draw
The first art-historical compendium on the dynamics of the line in drawing and dance. This catalog is from the travelling exhibition of the same title conceived at ICA Boston.
In the PEI Library

Get There First, Decide Promptly: The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Postwar Art
Book on the collection of Richard Brown Baker whom began acquiring works by emerging artists in the 1940s. The collection contatins over 1,600 works from the postwar period, including works by such American artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Morris, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, and James Rosenquist, as well as European and Asian artists such as Alberto Burri, Jean Dubuffet, Georges Mathieu, and Kurt Schwitters.
In the PEI Library

Manifesta Journal #13: Fungus in the Contemporary
Excerpt from Cuauhtémoc Medina’s Guest Editorial “The Fungus in the Contemporary”: 
“We would like to imagine that, among the truffles, magic mushrooms and huitlacoche that the curatorial and artistic projects selected have all gathered in this journal, the reader may also find some strains of pennicilum fungi growing, so to speak, on the corpse of recent “contemporary history”-based curatorial projects. Rather than documenting the historicist leanings of the contemporary art world, we have chosen projects that activate production of the social memory of art as a means to politicize complicate and even question its radical or even revolutionary myths of origin.”

Frieze #144: The Year in Review (issue 145 coming soon)

Featured Articles:
“The Long Nineties”
Revisiting Art’s Social Turn in the 1990s – the decade that has yet to end
by Lars Bang Larsen

“Remains of the Day”
What a show in New York says about artists freedom in Lebanon
by Kalelen Wilson-Goldie

“Pacific Standard Time”
Stretching across 70 museums and galleries Pacific Standard Time an unprecedented survey of Southern Califronia art newteen 1945 and 1980
by Sam Thorne and Stacy Allan
 

Afterall #29, Spring 2012
Moyra Davey, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Eugenio Dittborn, Dierk Schmidt

Words to Live By is a Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI) blog initiative that highlights material in the PEI Library and speaks to interest in both scholarly and innovative publications. The PEI Library houses a growing collection of more than 2,000 volumes on contemporary art, theory, criticism, and curatorial studies. PEI constituents can make an appointment to use the library Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by calling Ali Gathers at 267.350.4930 or emailing agathers@pcah.us.