S.M.S. No.4
William Copley and Dimitri Petrov

11h x 7w 

$4,200 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. 4 includes work by Robert Stanley, On Kawara, Paul Bergtold, Princess Winifred, Hollis Frampton, Lil Picard, Roy Lichtenstein, Rotella, Robert Watts, John Cage, Arman Fernandez, La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela.  

Highlights of issue no. 4 include Lichtenstein’s Folded Hat, On Kawara’s 100 Year Calendar, and Hollis Frampton’s Phenaleistiscope, Lil Picard’s Burned Bow Tie. 

This copy also includes the extremely rare La Monte Young reel-to-reel recording of “Drift Study 4:37:40 – 5:09:50, 5/8/68” with its original box and acetate cover featuring screenprinted artwork by Marian Zazeela. This item was intended to be included with the proposed edition of 2500 portfolios, but it is estimated that fewer than twenty of the audio recordings with artwork were actually produced and distributed. (*A cassette version of the recording was produced and sold by Reinhold-Brown Gallery in 1988 to allow for editions to be completed.)