Art On Paper (USA), Nov/Dec 2006, Vol 11, No 2
James Hoff on Mark Pawson's The Address Is The Art.

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Hand-sewn, hand stamped, hand-distributed -- everything about Pawson's clever artist book bears the artist's hand, yet very little of it was made by the artist himself. Comprised of envelopes he has recieved over the course of two decades, the publication, which is trimmed to 5 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches and has a hand-sewn binding is a patchwork of colours, patterns and textures--an accumulation of different types of stationary, stamps, and text.

While Pawson insists that the address is the art, and one is certainly confronted with his address in script and type throughout the publications forty pages, perhaps the most interesting elements are the commercially printed lines and graphic elements that decorate the envelopes' interiors, which are made visible with each turn of the page. They immediately recall the op art and conceptual graphic patterns of Bridget Riley and Sol LeWitt. No surprise, as the publication is clearly indebted to work from the sixties, especially that of the mail art movement. Moreover, there is no distinction between the source material and the page--the envelopes are not reproductions--and in carrying out such an enterprise of collecting and assembling, Pawson has created an artists' publication in which the edition is comprised of unique objects

The artist, who began the project in 2003, will be collecting and assembling envelopes until he reaches 500 copies ( so far he has completed one-fifth of the edition). So, send him a letter-- rumor has it that if you find your envelope in one of the published editions, the publication is free.