Making ephemera has become an important part of my art practice. I began by making small batches of laser-printed posters, which fold to become brochures. They supply additional texts outside of the work and the wall texts, yet within the gallery space. They draw attention to the concepts behind the works without literalizing them in an artist’s statement.

I think making collateral and multiples is related to my background as a printmaker. But though I know how, I don’t print this collateral by hand, because they are free for anyone to take, because I can easily make more at any time.

This is one example of the glacial change my work seems to be undergoing. Like my other work, the brochures de-emphasize visuality, so the word “visual” in “visual art” seems too finite to describe what do.

I suppose that I’ve always been interested in ephemera, but had previous notions about graphic design, printmaking and zines. Thankfully, Ted Purves and Steven Leiber helped me to embrace ephemera as a legitimate form in itself.

Ted, by the way, also contributed an essay to Extra Art: A Survey of Artists’ Ephemera, 1960-1999, a beautiful catalog of thousands of inventive invitations, posters, buttons and wacky one-off objects in a show curated by Steven Lieber…

You might find Extra Art in the stacks at 871 Fine Arts at 49 Geary Street, Suite 513 in San Francisco. Unlike the boutique-like museum stores I’ve visited lately, this book seller and gallery has a drool-worthy selection of art books and catalogs. Their gallery seems to show only works on paper or ephemera, focusing on minimalism, concrete poetry and fluxism, with a few contemporary artists like writer/designer/book artist Emily McVarish. During First Thursday gallery openings (No! More! Paintings!), 871’s idiosyncratic shows can be quite refreshing.

In September, I was delighted to see an exhibition of art posters at 871. What follows are my awful photos of some of my favorite posters. Sorry I didn’t get information about the designers.

This is my favorite by far. It’s of Marcel Duchamp with a piece from “The Bride Stripped Bare.” Like Duchamp, the poster designer selected materials minimally and purposefully, using foil stamping to represent the metalwork, and a high-gloss spot varnish only where the sheet glass appears. The rest of the poster is printed in economical evergreen and carmine red inks.

A really handsome Naim June Paik poster. It’s just a black and white portrait of the artist with text set in Helvetica: two sizes, two weights. And while the photography and typography are perfect, the whole thing is restrained but somehow avant garde.

I’m not a big Lawrence Weiner fan (the unblinking monotone!) but the use of selectively-placed die cuts are satisfyingly conceptually-sound.

I was really happy to see this Fred Sandback poster, because it’s an elegant conveyence of the ideas in minimal work. Also, many artists find gridded paper attractive, but in Sandback’s case, it seems to be an entirely appropriate usage.

What I really love about these posters is that the designers understand that it’s not possible or desirable to represent conceptual art in purely visual terms. All the posters do is suggest or supplement.