S.M.S. #5 (Deluxe Edition)

The Letter Edged in Black Press produced six issues of a journal called SMS (Shit Must Stop) from February to December 1968. Founded by artists William N. Copley and Dmitri Petrov, the journal was not bound like a traditional magazine but rather took the form of a folder containing individual contributions from more than 70 artists. Each issue of the journal featured items of varying media and formats, including prints, diminutive multimedia works, and sculptures produced in small editions. Employing the postal system as an alternative exhibition format, the series expresses the artists’ desire to share their ideas in novel, frugal, and accessible ways—a playful jab at the restrictive criteria of museums and “high art.”

The Art Institute’s complete set is one of 100 copies of the deluxe version, in which nearly every contribution is signed by its creator. The issues feature pieces by well-known artists like Marcel Duchamp, Ray Johnson, On Kawara, Yoko Ono, Roy Lichtenstein, and Lil Picard, as well as a multitude of unusual, interactive objects including audio recordings, a booklet about bathrooms in art galleries, a folded hat, luggage stickers, a phenakistoscope with instructions for use, and poetry. An unreleased special seventh edition was in the works, with an intended contribution from Dorothy Iannone, now also part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection.

SMS (Shit Must Stop) , no. 5, 1968
Cover by Congo (a Chimpanzee)
William Anthony (American, b. 1934), Custer’s Last Stand (inside cover)
Wall Batterton (British, b. 1932), Splendid Person
Edward Fitzgerald (American, born 1927), Twenty-Four Still Lifes
Neil Jenney (American, b. 1945), Bux [Bucks] American
Angus MacLise (American, 1938–1979), The Inner Pages
Bruce Nauman (American, b. 1941), Footsteps
Mel Ramos (American, b. 1935), Candy
Robert Rohm (American, b. 1934), Cut Corners
William Schwedler (American, 1942–1982), Against the Grain
Diane Wakoski (American, b. 1937), The Magellanic Clouds
Larry (Lawrence) Weiner (American, 1942–2021), Turf, Stake and String
Yoko Ono (American, born Japan 1933), Mend Pieces for John
William Copley (American, 1919–1996), The Barber’s Shop: Reflections on Picasso's Gift to the People of Chicago