In 2010, the Frac’s Books, Editions and Artist Multiples collection was enriched by a donation from the Marseille publishing house (Un)Limited store–(U)L.S, consisting of their publications and their personal collection. Today it includes more than 4000 singular documents: books, flip books, calendars, periodicals, postcards, posters, videos, CDs, vinyl, multiples, etc.
Far from the preoccupations of contemporary bibliophilia and from illustrated books, the identity of this collection is linked to the research of conceptual artists, reflecting a value of no-cost, liberal propagation of a printed work of art. This collection offers a wholly singular overview of this history of the artist book from the 1960s to today.
It is distinctive particularly for the works linked to trends of conceptual art, Land Art, and Fluxus, including historical and emblematic figures like herman de vries, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long and Robert Filliou. However, it is mainly representative of the 1980s and 1990s with their young national and international generation, with works by Paul Cox, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Peter Piller, Nicolas Simarik, Sophie Calle, Maurizio Cattelan and Philippe Cazal.
Also broadly represented in this collection are artists like Christian Boltanski, Claude Closky, and documentation céline duval, for whom editions and self-publishing constitute a major portion of their artistic work. The Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur also conserves the editions and archives of (U)L.S, consisting of publications spanning several collections, and on different mediums. Each of these objects stems from carte blanches by today’s French and international artists: Claude Closky, documentation céline duval, Michalis Pichler, Éric Watier, Anne-Valérie Gasc, Peter Downsbrough, Pierre Olivier Arnaud, Pierre Leguillon, Daniel Buren…
These professional archives are also supplemented by their work tools (models and printing plates) offering a precious illustration of the contemporary work on artist book publication.
Alongside this specific collection, a literature of theoretical books and seminal exhibition catalogues helps us understand this singular history of artist books and multiples.