ArchivesSpace at the University of Iowa

Scope and Contents

Box is labeled Bernard Moxham. He is the editor of this volume of Astrid Furnival's knitted works. The contents include Ruth Sackner photographed wearing the sweaters " Un Coup de Des" and "Be Fruitful and Multiply." Marvin Sackner is photographed wearing "Samuel Beckett - Breath." Also photographed and in the Sackner Archive are"Satie Sat At Tea" and "The Garden." All these works were photographed by Barbara Bollini. Astrid's wall hanging work "Roses Arose" is in the collection of Sara Sackner. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Box is labeled Bernard Moxham. He is the curator of this third volume of Furnival's works. The contents include The Furnival Family, Mail-Art, More Botanical Works, More Locative and Vocative Works, More Visual Poetry, Miscellany and Work-in-Progress and Mail-Art Interviews with John Furnival - Part 3. Bernard Moxham contributes the forward."It might be thought that a volume of John Furnival's work entitled 'Ends and Odds' contains only minor works compared with those illustrated within the preceding volumes.While this volume contains work that, for space reasons alone, could not be incorporated into volumes 1 and 2, the viewer/reader must beware - there are no hierarchies in John's world. An ink landscape drawing is no inferior to a screen, his modernist of postmodernist works are not intrinsically better than his more traditional art, a print is no worse than a drawing or painting, and a large scale work is not superior to a postcard. In other words, Johm Furnival distrusts the...

Scope and Contents Box is labeled Bernard Moxham. He is the curator of this first of three volumes of Furnival's works. The contents include Early Works; Word Machines; Screens; Alphabets, Letters and Numbers; Botanical Works; Book Illustrations; Dorthy's Umbrellas ; Mail Art Interviews. Contained in the Sackner Archive are "HA-AH" 1997 (page 31), the screen "Cogito Ergo Sum" 1981 (page 49), the screen "Fifty- one Towers of Babel" 1984 (page 50), "Vowel Screen" 1986 (page 83) and A to Z of Consumerville" 1981 (page 84). Two sweaters knit by Astrid Furnival and designed by John and Astrid are illustrated on page 148. Bernard Moxham contributes the forward."John Furnival is infuriating, at least to art critics and commentators. He is neither a traditionalist nor a signed-up member of the avant-garde. He eschews a consistency of style that could pigeonhole him into an '-ism'. He swaps and changes styles and media in no chronological order. He shows no obvious progression that could catergorise his work...

Scope and Contents Box is labeled Bernard Moxham. He is the curator of this second of three volumes. The contents include Topical Drawings, Kilpeck Drawings, Mazes, Eric Satie (and Music), Other Portraits and Related Works, Mail-Art Interviews. Bernard Moxham contributes the forward."Stephane Mallarme famously stated that everything existed to end up in a book. At that time,images were not as pervasive as they are today, nor did the computer exist. It would be argued that nowadays everything exists to end up as an image and, in this regard, John Furnival works mainly to channel information into visual form. Like his long term collaborator, Jonathan Williams ( an American poet, publisher, and bon vivant who took a profound, yet jocular, dislike to poetry-tasters), John Furnival regards as lamentable a contemporary art scene that fixates on mere fashion and naked commercialism. To John Furnival, art is neither grandiose nor commonplace but is a natural activity to be enjoyed and appreciated by all....