Soft Art Press

Ten issues out of 18 all published (1975- 1979). Edited by Noémi Maidan and Max Bucher in Lausanne. Folded sheets, 29.5 x 21 cm, colour printed on white and pink paper, 8-14 pp. The Swiss quarterly (mail) art magazine described itself as follows: 'Soft Art Press is a little magazine dealing with non-static art: video, mail-art, artists' public performances'. It featured (some original) artists' contributions (postcards and rubber stamped works) in offset, silkscreen en stamped format, as well as announcements for international mail art events and small publishers' releases. Text mostly in French, some English.

Comprises Nos. 5 (1976), 9 (1977), 10, 12 (1978), 13, 14, 15, 16 (1979), 17, and 18. Features several theme issues including 'Multi-Media Art Archives' (No.15), 'Rubber Stamps' (No. 17), and 'Central and South America' (No. 18). Recurring articles are devoted to small art publishers such as Ecart in Geneva, Other Books and So in Amsterdam, Anna Banana Productions in California, CaYC in Buenos Aires. Artists' contributions by Natalia LL, Ray Johnson, Image Bank, John Armleder, Klaus Groh, Henri Niotou, Ulises Carrion, Magali Lara, Horacia Zabala, Clemente Padin, Jorge Caraballo, Janos Urban, Gabor Toth, Pawel Petasz et al. The set (though incomplete) presents a lively historical document for those researching the international mail art, small press and art archives scene in the 1970s. An extensive contents list is available upon request. Ref.: Gwen Allen p. 298. Anna Banana mentions Soft Art Press in the introduction of Vile #6 Fe-Mail Art, 1978. Added is a promotional leaflet, 29.5 x 42 cm, with silkscreened images superimposed on the cover of No. 12, featuring Natalia LL. (total 11)