Pope.L: Proto-Skin Set explores early works the artist (William) Pope.L (born 1955) made between 1979 and 1994 exploring materiality and language. Published in this volume for the first time are the artist’s Proto-Skin Sets, a selection of mixed-media collages and assemblages that the artist began making as a student in the 1970s engaging the social constructions of language, race and gender. Treating language as an image and images as a language, these works anticipate his ongoing project Skin Sets, text-based works that employ language to construct pointed, absurd and layered messages about the vagaries of color. The publication also includes a five-part document from 1979 that is part of an open-ended set of written works titled Communications Devices, and a new interview with the artist conducted by Pope.L’s studio administrator Aliza Hoffman and curator Bennett Simpson.

Interviewer(s): Aliza Hoffman, Bennett Simpson