
Interested in notions of collection and consumption, Allen Ruppersberg reconsiders texts, songs, narratives, photographs, and memorabilia culled from American vernacular culture. Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film is an installation that mimics a publisher’s remainders display in a bookstore. The artist manipulated the presentation in provocative ways: inserting fictional titles and authors onto book covers; printing the back covers and inside jacket flaps of each book with the entire screenplay of a 1960s educational film that warns of the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs; and inserting into each book a series of full-page, black-and-white stills from the artist’s film archive. Installed in a museum setting, the texts become a sculptural work that is seen instead of read.

Who's Afraid of the New Now?, from Preview Suite
Allen Ruppersberg American, born 1944

It's Not Art, That Counts Now, from Preview Suite
Allen Ruppersberg American, born 1944

Nostalgia 24 Hours a Day, from Preview Suite
Allen Ruppersberg American, born 1944

Adults Only Please, from Preview Suite
Allen Ruppersberg American, born 1944