Author Description

Artist, teacher and writer Doug Ashford (born 1958) is well known for his innovative work with the New York artist collective Group Material, which was founded in 1983 and operated until 1996. Group Material (whose other members included Julie Ault, Patrick Brennan, Beth Jaker, Mundy McLaughlin, Marybeth Nelson, Tim Rollins and Peter Szypula) pioneered forms of installation and curatorial approaches, and engaged issues around participation and historical representation. Since that time, Ashford has gone on to make paintings, write, and produce other cross-disciplinary projects. He has also been influential as a teacher, having taught design, sculpture, and theory at The Cooper Union, New York, since 1989. This publication--the first collection of his writings and conversations--represents one of the many spaces Ashford's work occupies, and attempts to encompass the evolution of the artist's thinking over the past 25 years.