AU (Art Undentified). Mail Art publications

(1-8) Eight issues of AU magazine, published in Nishinomiya, Japan. Edited by Shozo Shimamoto, Ryosuke Cohen, Misao Kusumoto et al. All folded posters, 60 x 42 cm, printed b/w, occasionally with added colour or stamps. Featuring texts in Japanese and English, covering events in the International Mail Art Network, as well as performances and exhibitions held at the AU gallery in Nishinomiya directed by Shimamoto. Includes: AU 46 (1981), AU 55 (1983), AU 60 (1983), AU 61 (1984), AU 62 1(984), AU 68 (1985), AU 76 (1986) and AU 84 (1987). (9) AU Mail Art Book III, 1984. Edited by Misao Kusumoto, Ryosuke Cohen and Shozo Shimamoto. Staplebound, 27 x 19.5 cm, 24 pp. Features a survey of mail art, text in Japanese. Includes the original decorated envelope.

(10-17) Eight posters and flyers for mail art exhibitions, including Au International Mail Art Exhibition in Tokyo in January 1984, International Mail Art Exhibition, Osaka September 1984; Mail Art Show for Children in Kyoto Art Museum July 1985, and 'Mail Art Campaign in Japan' featured in The Yomiuri Shimbun, 1984. (18-30) Four mailed envelopes containing various loose cards with mail art information, plus 9 loose cards. One envelope contains a signed letter by Shimamoto, dated 1 August 1985, announcing the schedule of his Networking Performance tour through Europe, intended to meet all artists in the Mail Artists Directory. (31-32) Two postcards in mailed envelope, and a poster for the exhibition 'Shozo Shimamoto 1947-1987', Osaka, printed as International Herald Tribune, 10 September 1986. Features documentation of Shimazo's now famous performance using his shaven head as a canvas for artistic intervention by hundreds of artists he met on his European tour. (33) Correspondent Art portfolio by Shozo Shimamoto. Set of 18 tiny cards plus introduction card, presenting mail art pieces by other artists, reproduced and distorted by Shimamoto. All items in this lot were sent by AU founder Shozo Shimamoto to Dutch mail artists Bart Boumans and Willy Scholte in the mid-1980s. (total 33)