Join us Thursday, May 18th, for a special book launch and talk with editor Kenneth Goldsmith. Between the late 1980s and 2020, from the end of the Reagan era to the beginning of the pandemic, the artist Kenneth Goldsmith has collected hundreds of classified ads and other advertising posters in NYC. Hilarious, outrageous, absurd, and sometimes beautiful, they are unpredictable and without utility. Through this personal collection, Kenneth Goldsmith traces almost forty years of American history, and questions the limits between what is art and what is not, drawing a history of the margins that is far from being as homogeneous as one might think.

Kenneth will be speaking on how the book came to be and sharing examples from his vast collection of found ephemera – offering insight into a secret history of New York as told through classified ads and salvaged advertising posters. Printed Matter will have a selection of original ephemera from the book on display in our event space along with books available for purchase!

Kenneth Goldsmith is the author and editor of over thirty books. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb (www.ubu.com) and teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania.