PAUL RAMIREZ-JONAS
Current Residence
Brooklyn NY USA
What is your favorite art book?
Piero Manzoni's catalogue by Germano Celant
What are you currently reading?
The Port Huron Statement, by Students for a Democratic Society
What is your favorite art book title?
It is not an art book... but How to Do Things with Words by J. L. Austin
What is the first book you read that was influential to you?
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I was 13 or 14 and it took me forever to read and understand. I think I read it 5 or 6 times in a row.
What books, magazines, or art ephemera do you keep in the space where you work?
Predictably I keep my own archive of books and magazines that mention my work... but that is more for storage than perusal. I keep all my books, magazines, and pamphlets at home -where I do most of my reading. The most useful book I used to have in the studio was a 24 volume outmoded encyclopedia. It was always useful as weights. Nothing works better to hold things down than a heavy book.
If you could only live with one art book what would it be?
Yikes! It would not be an art book. It would have to be a book that I consider a work of art, such as Moby Dick.
What is your favorite item in the MoMA Library Collection? Why?
It's a toss up between:
http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b715712~S8 Because he is one of my favorite authors.
and
http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b725749~S8
because of the immediacy and directness of the posters.