12 — DEAR HARRY: 50 Artists 50 Letters
21 December 2022 – 21 January 2023“Harry” is Harry Ruhé, – protagonist, provocateur – organiser of renowned Fluxus festivals and happenings, in the 80s and 90s. Founder of Gallery A in 1976, Ruhé maintained an intense correspondence with a galaxy of artists, as yet little known, but later to achieve fame and notoriety as the ground-breaking practitioners of their time. The roll call is long, Günter Brus, Lawrence Weiner, Al Hansen, Ben Vautier, Yoko Ono, Paul Sharits, … Ruhé has a distinguished career as writer and publisher. The exhibition “Dear Harry” presents a wall display of full-size facsimiles of the letters (list below), with previously unpublished stories written in Harry’s inimitable style. The book, an archive box (ring mechanism with polyester album pages) published in an edition of 25 numbered copies, will be available for viewing and purchase. Enter will present a table display of Harry Ruhé’s publications since 1976, including current and out-of-print titles: 25 Fluxus Stories, The Adventures of Willem de Ridder, Punk in Holland, …
Letters by: Eric Andersen · Karel Appel · Bernard Aubertin · Luciano Bartolini · Robert Bozzi · Günter Brus · Daniel Buren · Ulises Carrión · Giuseppe Chiari · Tony Conrad · Francesco Conz · Peter Downsbrough · Henry Flynt · Isa Genzken · Richard Hamilton · Al Hansen · Piero Heliczer · Dick Higgins · Armin Hundertmark · Dorothy Iannone · Julius · Per Kirkeby · Bengt af Klintberg · Milan Knížák · Alison Knowles · Yayoi Kusama · Jean-Jacques Lebel · Boris Lurie · Maurizio Nannucci · Ladislav Novák · Ben Patterson · Pierre Restany · Gerhard Richter · Willem de Ridder · James Riddle · Guy Rombouts · Takako Saito · Claude Sandoz · Tomas Schmit · Paul Sharits · Mieko Shiomi · Daniel Spoerri · Petr Stembera · Endre Tót · Hans Uhlmann · Ben Vautier · Wolf Vostell · herman de vries · Jos Vulto · Lawrence Weiner
— Henry Flynt, Voorstel voor een Genieën-Bevrijdings-Project (original titel: Proposal for a “Geniuses’ Liberation” Project ), essay by Flynt, Dutch translation, Galerie A, 1976
— Roland van den Berghe, NEW YORK. Four Museums – One Postcard, booklet with 8 cards, 1977
— Studio A. 1976-78, archive folder containing more than 40 invitations, posters and publications for exhibitions and events by Günter Brus,Tomas Schmit, Paul Sharits, Ludwig Gosewitz, Stan Brakhage, Endre Tót, Ulises Carrión, George Brecht, Lawrence Weiner, a.o., and for presentations at Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde; ed. ca. 20 copies, 1978
— Harry Ruhé, FLUXUS, the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties, binder in slipcase, ca. 320 pages, 1979
— Studio A. 1977, archive folder containing invitations and original newspaper cuttings on exhibitions and performances by Al Hansen, Floor van Keulen, Endre Tót, Willem de Ridder, Thom Puckey & Dirk Larsen, Visual Works by Poets (with Simon Vinkenoog), etc. edition in ca. 20 copies, 1979
— Al Hansen, Fluxflakpak, binder with original photographs (partly vintage), prints, photocopies, and one or more original artworks, 20 copies, handmade by Al Hansen & HR, most copies signed by Hansen, Amsterdam, 1979
— Willem de Ridder & William Levy, RADIO ART. The Graven Image, edition Galerie A, 1980
— Ladislav Novák, edition published on the occasion of an exhibition at Galerie A, with contributions by Henri Chopin and Jíří Valoch; special edition with a signed screenprint by Novák, 1981
— Artists’ Books from Iceland, catalogue for an exhibition in cooperation with Museum Fodor, Amsterdam, and the Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, 1983 (very few copies left)
— JOSEPH BEUYS. Werken in het Fluxus-Archief Harry Ruhé, catalogue, with rubber stamps and reproductions mounted on the pages, 24 pp., 1987 — Harry Ruhé, MULTIPLES, et cetera, edition of 1200 copies (Dutch and English), 1991; English version: out of print /Dutch version: a few copies left — Peter Schuyff, Sketchbook, 36pp., 200 numbered & signed copies, (edition in collaboration with Aschenbach Gallery, Amsterdam), 1991
— Wiener Aktionismus, archive folder containing a poster, text sheets, original photographs and printed matter; published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by Galerie A at Proton ICA, Amsterdam, 1996
— Harry Ruhé, Het Beste van Wim T. Schippers / The Best of Wim T. Schippers, Centraal Museum Utrecht, 1997
— Harry Ruhé, 25 Fluxus Stories (with Edizioni Francesco Conz, Verona), texts on loose sheets in a cloth covered box, 100 numbered copies, Amsterdam/Verona, 1999
— Harry Ruhé, 25 Fluxus Stories (with Edizioni Francesco Conz, Verona), 88 pp, 2000; paperback version, 1999
— Harry Ruhé, STANLEY BROUWN. a chronology, Amsterdam, 2001/2005; binder with 76 sleeves containing texts, original photographs and printed matter
— Harry Ruhé, GEORGE BRECHT. The editions, 64 pp., 2005
— Harry Ruhé & Camillo Rigo, Lucio Fontana, Graphics, multiples, and more … catalogue raisonné, 208 pp., Amsterdam, 2006 — Harry Ruhé & Camillo Rigo, Lucio Fontana, Incisioni, grafica, multipli …, Trento, 2007 softcover and hardcover edition
— Harry Ruhé, FLUXUS IN HOLLAND, the Sixties (versions in Dutch and English), binder containing a chronology, original photographs, 2 DVDs (Fluxus events in 1962 and 1963) and printed matter, in slipcase, 100 copies, 2009
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, Hidden Delights, Lingerie in the Arts, 112 pp., 2009 — Harry Ruhé, FRANCESCO CONZ, publisher, collector, fetishist, binder with 50 sheets with documents and more than 80 original historic Fluxus related photographs, with actions by Ay-O, Ono, Shimamoto, Paik, Knizak, Schneemann, Corner, and many others, each with the stamp of the ARCHIVIO CONZ VERONA, 20 numbered copies, Amsterdam, 2010; in slipcase
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, Eat your Art Out – Food in the Arts, 94 printed cards, many of them with artists’ receipts on the reverse, incl. Banksy, Beuys, Blume, Breuning, César, Harrison, Knowles, Maciunas, Ono, Rotella, Schippers, Vautier, Watts…, in a cardboard box, CultClub Edition, 2010
— Special edition in 50 numbered copies, with an extra box containing multiples, photographs and prints by Fredie Beckmans (Soeppoëzie multiple and membership card Worstclub) , Bernhard Johannes Blume (signed Mahlzeit-postcard), Francesco Conz (text card with rubber stamp), Hugo Kaagman (signed wine label), Alison Knowles (signed multiple), Ine Poppe (photograph), Pauline Wiertz, Luuk Wilmering (signed photograph), Ton Zwerver (signed print), and photo documentation Fluxus Dinner, Amsterdam Hilton, 2003. With DVD in a cardboard box, 31.5 x 22.5 x 8 cm
— GUSTAV METZGER. No Holds Barred, documentation and text (HR) on the Earth Minus Environment, shown at Art Amsterdam, May 2010
— Jeannette Dekeukeleire & Harry Ruhé, Punk in Holland, binder with 48 sheets (design: Hugo Kaagman), photographs, buttons and a CD, cover with stencil work by Kaagman, 100 numbered copies, 2011
— Peter Hutchinson, Journal, 2011, a cloth covered box containing 32 prints, 24.2 x 19.6 cm,
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, Shame & Scandal: The Taboo in the Arts, binder containing 50 plastic sleeves containing original materials as well as reprints of photographs, photocopies of magazine and newspaper articles, postcards, gallery programs, etc., with DVD, planned as an edition of 100 copies, no more 59 copies were produced, 2012
— FLUXUS 50, Fluxbox containing the catalogue Fluxus at 50, and original photographs, buttons, newspaper clippings and printed matter, Museum Wiesbaden (catalogue and box) and FluxShop/Galerie A (contents), Summer 2012;
— Harry Ruhé, BEN IN HOLLAND, publication, 38 pp. incl. photos and printed matter, designed in the style of Ben Vautier’s legendary magazine BEN DIEU, planned edition: 100 copies, realized: ca. 50, CultClub, Amsterdam, 2013
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, POLAROID!, 56 pp., CultClub, Amsterdam, 2014 (incl. Daniel Spoerri, Milan Knížák and Dieter Roth)
— Harry Ruhé, More Fluxus Stories, Galerie A: 1975-2015, binder containing 40 plastic sleeves, filled with ephemera (partly 1960s vintage), and short stories about artists, 2015
— Paul Sharits, Letters to ‘A’ 1975-1993, archive box (dark blue library buckram; ring mechanism), with polyester album pages, containing correspondence (mainly Fluxus related), photographs and a signed (unique) photowork, 50 numbered copies, 2017
— Endre Tót, SOME NULLIFIED QUESTIONS FOR YOO, project for Galerie A, 1978; Questionnaire and the anwers by Marcel Alocco, Liesbeth Brandt Corstius, Ulises Carrión & Aart van Barneveld, Tuja van den Berg, Bernard Besson, Peter van Beveren, Sjoerd Buisman, Bruno Bussmann, José Louis Castillejo, Herbert Distel, Robert Filliou, Hervé Fisher, Peter Frank, Ken Friedman, Bill Gaglione, Jochen Gerz, Michael Gibbs, Franck Gribling, Buky Grinberg, Klaus Groh, Poul ter Hofstede, Davi Det Hompson, Hetty Huisman, Dorothy Iannone, Milan Knížák, Jaroslaw Kozłowski, John Liggins, Niels Lomholt, Joan Mathews, Tommy Mew, Jerven Ober, Silke Paull, Philip Peters, Pnina Reichman, Pierre Restany, Petr Stembera/Jaroslav Richtr, Gerrit-Jan de Rook, Takako Saito, Dieter Schwarz, Paul Sharits, Wies Smals, Robert Smit, Jiři Valoch, Inez Vandeghinste, Albert Waalkens, Hervé Würz and Jörg Zutter, in a transparent plastic holder, 35 copies, 2019
— Ken Friedman, 23 Fluxus Portraits, incl. Beuys, Brecht, Brouwn, Ono, Paik, Roth …, 25 sheets printed on heavy paper (A4), boxed, 50 numbered & signed copies, 2018
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, The Adventures of Willem de Ridder, 76 pp, 65 illustrations in colour/30 bl/w, 2017
— The Adventures of Willem de Ridder, special edition in 50 numbered copies: a box with the book, and prints, photographs and multiples by Eric Andersen, Philip Corner, Ken Friedman, Jon & Geoff Hendricks, Bengt af Klintberg, Alison Knowles, Ben Patterson, Willem de Ridder, Wim T. Schippers, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, and others
— Harry Ruhé, ART, NO-ART & ANTI-ART, 160pp., 2019
— Nam June Paik in Holland, ephemera and a DVD in a in a transparent plastic box, 50 copies, 2020
— Harry Ruhé & Jeannette Dekeukeleire, INTIMACY , box containing texts, prints and photographs by Ay-O, Yoko Ono, Otto Muehl, Shigeko Kubota, Willem de Ridder, Annie Sprinkle, Alison Knowles, and others
— THIS WAY BROUWN. photography: Igno Cuypers (1964), archive box (dark blue library buckram; ring mechanism), with polyester album pages, containing texts and illustrations printed on translucent paper, and 25 original photographs of This Way Brouwn actions (1964) by Igno Cuypers, 10 copies, numbered & signed by the photographer, Amsterdam, 2020 (sold out); this proof also incl. photographs of Brouwn actions at Amstel 47 and at the Leiseplein Theater, Amsterdam (1964). 26 photographs, most of them signed by the photographer.
— THE ARTIST IS PRESENT, 58 sheets/116 pp. in a transparant plastic box, each copy containing vintage invitations, in each copy different, 30 numbered copies, August 2021
— Harry Ruhé, A FLUXUS STORY. 1981 AKI FLUXFEST 2021, 84pp., 2021
— Harry Ruhé, Vijfentwintig Fluxus Verhalen, (first published in 1999 as 25 Fluxus Stories, a collaboration with Francesco Conz, Verona), 58 loose sheets with original photographs and texts, in a cloth covered box, with text translations in Dutch by Hans Theys, edition in 20 numbered & signed copies (+ 5 A.P.), Art Partout Gallery, Antwerp / AARS, Antwerp Run School, 2022
— WONDERLAND. Van space cake tot safe space, an edition produced in collaboration with Galerie A; cardboard box, 35.5 x 27 x 5.5 cm, containing booklets, multiples and prints, most of them signed, contributions by:Anita Evenepoel, Anna Tilroe, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Anny De Decker, Bart Verschaffel, Carmen Devos, Christine Duchiron Brachot, Daisy Roman, Greta Meert, Guido Belcanto, Guy Rombouts, Hans Theys, Harry Ruhé, Idris Sevenans, Jan Braet, Jonas Van der Haegen, Joris Dockx, Laurence Petrone, Luc Deleu, Ludo Bekkers, Marianne Berenhaut, Marianne Brouwer, Moniek Bucquoye, Nadine Plateau, Paul Ilegems, Pauline Niks, Renny Ramaekers, Rob Malasch, Roger D’Hondt & Marie-Hélène Van Audenhove, Ronny Van de Velde, Walter Swennen, Wilfried Huet, Wim Van Mulders, Zena Van den Broek, edition of 50 copies, published by Antwerp Art School, Tornado Editions and Galerie A, 2022
— DEAR HARRY – 50 artists, 50 letters, archive box (dark blue library buckram; ring mechanism), with polyester album pages, containing letters reproduced in facsimile, and texts printed on translucent paper, 25 numbered copies, 2022