Marisa J. Futernick
13 Presidents
Softback, 304 pages, 274 colour and black and white photographs, 210mm x 148mm.
ISBN: 978-1-910516-06-5.
In 2014, Marisa J. Futernick drove nearly ten thousand miles across America, visiting all 13 of the nation’s presidential libraries along the way. 13 Presidents is the result: an artist’s book that combines photographs from the journey with a suite of short stories. Mixing fact and fiction, each President from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush is a protagonist in this collection of unexpected portraits.
The photographs, shot on analogue film, depict the everyday details of the towns that these men are from, including the homes where they were born, and their final resting places. 13 Presidents weaves together personal narrative with wider cultural observation, forming a vision of America that is both invented and true.
13 Presidents is released on September 1, 2016 with a programme of activities taking place in the US and UK during the run-up to the presidential election on November 8.
US programme:
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Thursday, September 1, 7pm
Artist’s talk and reading
4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, New York
Residency Unlimited
Tuesday, September 6, 6:30pm
Marisa J. Futernick in conversation with curator Emma Enderby (Public Art Fund and Rice + Toye)
360 Court Street #4, Brooklyn, New York
Harvard University
Wednesday, September 7, 7pm
Artist’s talk and reading in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Suite
Organised by the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies
Adams House, 13-21 Bow Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cover Books Atlanta
Saturday, September 10, 4pm
Artist’s talk and reading
Hosted by ART PAPERS magazine
1031 Marietta Street, Suite A, Atlanta, Georgia
Human Resources LA
Thursday, September 15, 8pm
Artist’s talk and reading
410 Cottage Home Street, Los Angeles, California
BOOK SHOW LA
Friday, September 16, 8pm
Artist’s talk and reading
5503 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California
UK programme:
The British Library
Monday, October 10, 6:30pm
Marisa J. Futernick in conversation with BBC Radio 4′s Justin Webb
96 Euston Road, London
Arnolfini
13 Presidents: A Reading Room Exhibition
October 18–November 13
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol
University College London, Institute for the Americas
Thursday, October 20, 5:30pm
Marisa J. Futernick in conversation with Professor Iwan Morgan
51 Gordon Square, London
Arnolfini
Saturday, October 22, 4pm
Artist’s talk and reading accompanied by a live slide installation
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol
ICA London
Tuesday, November 8, 6:30pm
An event to celebrate the launch of 13 Presidents, with readings by Marisa J. Futernick and others, will take place on the night of the US presidential election
The Mall, London
Dublab Radio
13 Presidents: A Radio Series
Presented by Rice + Toye
Airing December 2016
Further information about this book and others from Slimvolume are available on the publisher’s website here.
13 Presidents is distributed by Cornerhouse, Publications Ltd, HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN, UK. www.cornerhousepublications.org.
Marisa J. Futernick is an artist and writer based in London. She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1980 and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. She attended Yale University; Goldsmiths College; and the Royal Academy Schools, London. She has published several books, including How I Taught Umberto Eco to Love the Bomb (RA Editions & California Fever Press, 2015) and The Watergate Complex (Rice + Toye, 2015). She has exhibited widely, at venues including the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Jerwood Space, London; and Yale University.
Slimvolume (London) is a contemporary art press that commissions and promotes solo monographs, artists’ books, thematic readers, as well as editions and multiples. The organisation has a parallel events programme that combines publication launches with performances, film screenings and talks, as well as itinerant offsite projects. New publications for 2016 and 2017 include those by Ruth Blacksell, Paul Buck, Jeffrey Dennis, Travis Jeppeson, Scott King, Cally Spooner and Tris Vonna-Michell.
This project has been made possible with generous support from the Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Enterprise, Arts Council England, the British Council, and private donors.
