e-flux journal at CCS Bard

e-flux is pleased to donate the full print edition of e-flux journal to the library of the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College. Since its launch in 2008, 136 issues of the journal have been published to date, featuring more than 1,300 essays on art and theory by more than 600 artists, writers, curators, and theorists from all parts of the world. This gift inaugurates a new program by e-flux journal to make its print edition available to libraries of art schools, museums, and art centers around the world.

e-flux journal was started in a response to a perceived lack of publishing platforms for urgent, independent, critical writing on art and society in the mid-2000s. Following a series of projects on experimental educational, such as unitednationsplaza in Berlin and Mexico DF, and nightschool at New York’s New Museum, we observed a strong interest in and need for discourse and conversation among cultural producers across many fields of contemporary culture. Responding to a suggestion from artist Liam Gillick that a publication need not to concern itself too much with design, modes of production, or distribution, but instead focus on publishing urgent content by all possible means, we choose the format of an online journal because it could be rapidly produced and freely distributed. In our first editorial in November 2008, we write: 

“Historically, more than any single institution, art publications have been primary sites for discourse surrounding the artistic field. And yet most recently, the discourse has seemingly moved elsewhere—away from the formal vocabulary used to explain art production, away from traditional art capitals, and away from the printed page. At times, new discursive practices even replace traditional forms of art production. Given the current climate of disciplinary reconfiguration and geographic dispersal, it has become apparent that the urgent task has now become to engage the new intellectual territories in a way that can revitalize the critical vocabulary of contemporary art. We see a fresh approach to the function of an art journal to be perhaps the most productive way of doing this.”

While e-flux journal’s digital format has many advantages, the internet and online archives are always vulnerable to changes in hardware and software. In view of this, a print version is the only way to ensure long-term availability, and there is hardly a more ideal place for it than a school or museum library. We are delighted that e-flux journal will become a part of the superb Library & Archives at CCS Bard.

“We acknowledge the precarity of digital content and are delighted to add a full print set of the e-flux journal to the library’s holdings.”
—Ann Butler, Director of Library and Archives, CCS Bard College

“e-flux journal has been a touchstone of intellectual enquiry and dialog for the past fifteen years. This gift provides a vital historic record of some of the most important debates and dynamic research in the arts and broader society. We are delighted that it will become a permanent resource for students, faculty and researchers at Bard College.”
—Tom Eccles, Executive Director, Center for Curatorial Studies, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College

In addition to the full print edition of e-flux journal, e-flux has donated the model of the building that housed unitednationsplaza, a temporary, experimental school in Berlin, initiated by Anton Vidokle in 2006. Fabricated by the Berlin-based studio mixedmedia, the model supplements e-flux journal in the Library & Archives at CCS Bard, as a testament to both the journal’s inception as well as a shared theoretical and intellectual ethos between unitednationsplaza and CCS Bard. The model, alongside the full set of e-flux journal, is currently on view at the Hessel Museum of Art as part of Extended Structures, curated by Zehra Begüm Kışla.

The CCS Bard Library is one of the foremost contemporary art research collections in the United States focusing on post-1960’s contemporary art, curatorial practice, exhibition histories, theory and criticism. The library’s Special Collections includes important holdings of historic and out-of-print artist produced periodicals, limited edition, rare and signed exhibition catalogues and contemporary art publications, as well as an extensive collection of artists’ books. Through donation and purchase, the Library is comprehensively collecting the full publication history of select international exhibition venues, art publishers, and small presses.

The CCS Bard Library and Archives support research by a wide range of constituencies including students in the MA Program in Curatorial Studies, Bard College undergraduates, faculty, and other researchers and international scholars whose work relies on access to primary resource materials in the contemporary arts.

*Image above: View of Extended Structures, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 2023. Master’s thesis exhibition curated by Zehra Begüm Kışla. Photo: Olympia Shannon 2023.