A lot has happened since the first post on this blog. I'm not sure what's next for Reference Library, but I know I'm having just as much fun now as when I started — five years ago today.
Above: portrait of me by my daughter Elsa.
Excursus I: Reference Library
Up On My Back, And I Will Take You Thither
Excursus is a new series at ICA that invites the public to come together, converse, and peruse archival material in the context of the present. Andy Beach, known for his blog and curatorial interventions under the name Reference Library, inaugurates the series with Up On My Back, And I Will Take You Thither, a project that takes inspiration from the Centaur Book Shop, Philadelphia’s own Prohibition-era radical press, record store, and bohemian meeting place.
Celebrate the opening with a talk about the Centaur by curator Lynne Farrington of Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To be followed by an after hours reception on the ICA terrace. Tonight at 6:30!
icaphila.org
Top: The Centaur (sign for Centaur Book Shop), Wharton Esherick, 1924; at his home in Paoli, Pennsylvania. Bottom: The Sign of The Centaur, Andy Beach and Happy Signs; installed at the ICA, Philadelphia.
Chums
Curated by Unchanging Window
Andy Beach
Emmeline de Mooij
Mary Manning
Keegan McHargue
Rhiannon Silver
Carl Williamson
Opening party this Friday, September 10
Gallery Space
1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles
September 10–26, 2010
Above: Glen Hinman from The Colby Poster Printing Company and two new prints I made for Chums.
Starting today. Getting to Inbox Zero doesn't make a lot of sense to me; my goal is Inbox a Few Hundred. I'll let you know if/when I get there.
Refresh to Death: eBay Self Help and Doodles
By Andy Rementer
Second edition (green cover). Edition of 100.
Twelve pages. $10. Buy it now.
The South Willard and Stork Bites Man 
Shrimp Shop opens this Saturday!
Boro Pants
Ceramic Mobiles
Creative Playthings
Down Vests
Handmade Toys
Little Bloomers
Silver Cups
Vintage Overalls
Wooden Blocks
and more, made in the USA, by Brett Cody Rogers, Camden Rose, Creative Playthings, Crescent Down Works, Erin Mulcahy, Kelly Breslin, Mari Eastman, Wary Meyers, Ramsey Conder and Ready 4 The House.
Opening party on Saturday November 21, 2–4pm
Music and singalong by StoryTimeFunLand
South Willard
8038 W. Third St.
Los Angeles
Come on out on Saturday it's going to be fun!
Issue #04 of Apartamento magazine launches this week and includes Kinder: An Everyday Life Kids Supplement. Curated by me, with a coloring book by Andy Rementer, furniture-making workshop with Jordi Ferreiro, an interview with Enzo Mari, and Ye Rin Mok's photos of the things Geoff McFetridge made for/with his daughter Frances. More here.
