Ryosuke Cohen. Brain Cell portfolio and original cards

(1) Contains a set of 19 Brain Cell issues numbered 202 - 220, created in 1991 by the Japanese mail artist Ryosuke Cohen. Each issue consists of a mixed media collage on paper, 30.5 x 42.5 cm, signed by the artist, and numbered on rear. Also included are three sheets with project information and a list of participants for each issue, including Ray Johnson, Klaus Groh, Ruud Janssen, Ed Plunkett, Jean-Claude and Christo, et al. The set is kept between two black boards, one with handwritten text 'Brain Cell No. 201-220. July '91 R. Cohen 15/50'. Excellent copies. (2) Five mailed envelopes, each containing an issue of Brain Cell. Includes No. 116 (1989), No. 72 (1990), No. 224 (1991), and two unidentified issues. (3) Fourteen artists' postcards, 10 x 15 cm, featuring elaborate rubber-stamp work by Ryosuke Cohen, all mailed by Cohen to Dutch mail artist Willy Scholte between 1983 and 1985. (total 21)

Brain Cell is a long-running collaborative mail art project by Ryosuke Cohen (b. 1948) initiated in 1985. By Jan. 2025 it has reached over 1232 issues. Individual artists send in stamps, stickers, drawings or other images to Cohen, who assembles and prints them onto one sheet in an edition of 150, using an old-fashioned silkscreen system called a Cyclostyle. Each participant receives one print while Cohen keeps one copy and assembles the remaining Brain Cell prints into sets of consecutive editions, distributed to artists and mail Art exhibitions around the world.