Seth Siegelaub: “Better Read Than Dead”; Writings and Interviews, 1964–2013

Edited by Marja Bloem, Krist Gruijthuijsen, Lauren van Haaften-Schick, Sara Martinetti, and Jo Melvin

Published by Stichting Egress Foundation and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2020

Graphic design: Marc Hollenstein

English

19.5 x 25 cm, 352 p.

“Better Read Than Dead was the title that the great American art dealer, curator, author, and researcher Seth Siegelaub (1941–2013) had chosen for an anthology of his own writings—one of the projects for which he never found the time, busy as he was running his global one-man operation. Here, happily, that project is now fulfilled.

The selected writings, interviews, extended bibliography, and chronology gathered in this Siegelaub sourcebook fill the historical gaps in the sprawling network of exhibitions, publications, projects, and collections that constitute Siegelaub’s life’s work.

Here, Siegelaub’s writings are reproduced as scans in order to convey the variety of the documents and to give a sense of archival immersion. Interspersed with these “writings” are interviews and talks, several newly transcribed. The majority of interviews from 1969 to 1972 are reprinted here.” (Catalogue blurb)

In close collaboration with Sara Martinetti, I copy-edited all the texts, which included unpublished material and newly transcribed interviews, which often implied going back to the original audio files and doing contextual research. Additional tasks included defining a system for the transcriptions and a bibliographical apparatus—quite what Siegelaub would have done in his day.