THE HAPTIC TIMES

From author Annika Hansteen-Izora via Co-Conspirator Press

W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America

"We're excited to share a new selection of the artist magazine S.M.S. (Shit Must Stop) published throughout 1968 by The Letter Edged in Black Press, founded by William Copley and Dimitri Petrov. Conceived as a utopian/democratic meeting ground for artists' projects of all kinds, S.M.S. contributors were not given any direction or restrictions on the work they produced for the bi-monthly portfolio. Whatever the artists created, Copley and his assistant Dimitri Petrov reproduced with scrupulous fidelity to the original. The work ranged from the purely conceptual to the carefully crafted, from well-known and unknown artists alike. Subscriptions were sold and the portfolios were sent through the mail. Issue No. 3 features work by Dick Higgins, Hannah Wiener, John Battan, William Bryant (Billy Copley), Enrico Baj, Aftograph, Roland Penrose, Man Ray, Joseph Kosuth, Ronnie Landfield and H.C. Westermann. The slipcase portfolio is by John Battan."

"For this volume, we wanted to focus on the intangible and unknown, and the ways in which we fill space—with objects or ideas, silence or sound, religion or drugs. You’ll find Conversations with How Long Gone host Jason Stewart, photographer Pia Riverola, entrepreneur Kenisha White, astrophysicist Janna Levin, and Gorilla Rx founder Kika Keith, the first black woman to own a dispensary in Los Angeles and whose work in cannabis is a reminder that making space matters."