“Publish or perish” is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia to rapidly and continuously publish academic work to sustain or further one's career.
Is that saying somehow relevant in the artistic field? In art is it: “Sell or go to hell”? Beyond an obvious effective way to get legitimatization (indeed, it’s difficult to write and edit, and furthermore, printing is an expensive and privileged act), books are magic carpets to convey and transmit textual and visual research. Designing a letter is a challenge, building a narrative page after page is a journey.
Background picture: Pêche, Fabrique des Filets, Planche XIII in L'Encyclopédie Diderot et d'Alembert.
Lee Lozano, No Title, 1962. Private Collection © The Estate of Lee Lozano. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.