S.M.S. No.5
William Copley and Dimitri Petrov

11h x 7w 

$1,800 Available (1)

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S.M.S. (Shit Must Stop) was subscription-based exhibition in a box conceived, edited, and produced by William Copley and Dimitri Petrov in 1968. The project derived its formal conceit from antecedents like Marcel Duchamp’s La Boîte-en-valise, George Maciunas’s FluxKit, and Phyllis Johnson’s Aspen, but was unique in its juxtaposition of the well-known with the unknown, and in its short-lived intensity: six editions, each featuring about a dozen artist multiples, were distributed throughout 1968 before Copley and Petrov called it quits. 

S.M.S. No. 5 includes work by Congo (the chimpanzee), William Anthony, Wall Batterton, Edward Fitzgerald, Neil Jenny, Angus MacLise, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Mel Ramos, Robert Rohm, William Schwedler, Diane Wakoski, Lawrence Wiener, and The Barber’s Shop.  

Yoko Ono’s Mend Piece for John is indicative of her instruction pieces from era. The work includes a tube of glue, a written poem, and the following written prompt: “Take your favorite cup. Break it in many pieces with a hammer. Repair it with this glue and this poem.”