MATERIALS: Aluminium print matrices, steel wire
DIMENSIONS: 39 × 25.5 cm + wire
EDITION: Unique copy
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed on each page, lower right: ‘Fabio Mauri’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: O_1972_228
A single-copy artist’s book consisting of forty-six aluminium blocks in vertical format, with oval holes at the top and bottom of the sheet, bound with a steel cable allowing the work to be to be hung on the wall. The phrase ‘I thought of everything’ appears on each page, followed by the year and the signature ‘Fabio Mauri’. The only element that changes on each page is the year, which follows reverse chronological order, going from 1972 on the cover, the year the work was created, to 1926 on the final page, the year of the artist’s birth. The sheets are held together by a steel cable, arranged so that the work can be hung on the wall.
1978, Florence, Chamber of Arms in Palazzo Vecchio and Fortezza da Basso, Formato lib(&)ro: mostra del libro oggetto in Italia, 28 January – 15 February, curated by Luciano Caruso, Eugenio Miccini, Maurizio Nannucci.
1991, Gallarate, Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Pagine e dintorni, 22 September – 26 October.
1994, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, 21 June – 5 October, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu.
1998, Rome, Art Gallery Banchi Nuovi, Opera-Pensiero, opening 28 April, curated by Gabriele Perretta.
2006-2007, Milan, Galleria Milano, Tuttolibri, 12 December 2006 – 10 February 2007, curated by Lea Vergine.
2016-2017, Naples, Museo Madre, Retrospettiva a luce solida, 26 November 2016 – 6 March 2017, curated by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani.
2023-2024, Rivoli (Turin), Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Experiments in the Existence of Evil, 16 December 2023 – 24 March 2024, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Sara Codutti, Marianna Vecellio.
Formato lib(&)ro, exhibition catalogue, Chamber of Arms in Palazzo Vecchio and Fortezza da Basso, Florence (Florence, 1978), n.p.
Liber: pratica internazionale del libro d’artista, edited by Sarenco [Isaia Mabellini], Eugenio Miccini, Franco Verdi (Verona: Edizioni Factotum-art; Sarenco & Diego Strazzer editori, 1980), no. 82 (ill.).
Pagine e dintorni: Libri d’artista, exhibition catalogue, Civica galleria d’arte moderna, Gallarate (Gallarate: Comune di Gallarate, 1991), p. 52 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu (Milan / Rome: Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori / Carte Segrete, 1994), p. 140 (ill.).
Tuttolibri, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Milano, Milan, edited by Lea Vergine (Milan, 2006), no. 55 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), no. 7, p. 55 (ill.).
Italia Pop: L’arte negli anni del boom, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma), edited by Walter Guadagnini, Stefano Roffi (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), p. 71.
