Coined in the early twentieth century to designate progressive literary journals, the term “little magazine” was remobilized during the 1960s to grapple with the contemporary proliferation of independent architectural periodicals that appeared in response to the political, social, and artistic changes of the period. Clip/Stamp/Fold 2 investigates how a diverse group of international architectural magazines informed the development of postwar architectural culture and provided an important platform for innovation and debate. In addition to short-lived radical magazines, Clip/Stamp/Fold 2 includes pamphlets and building instruction manuals along with professional magazines that were influenced by the graphics and intellectual concerns of their self-published contemporaries.

Highlights include original first editions of what later became major journals, such as Oppositions and October (New York), breakaway student publications Archigram (London) and Melp! (Paris), and a variety of scarce “underground architectural protest magazines” like Polygon (London) and Bau (Vienna) that reflect the era’s spirit of social activism. Landmark volumes of Perspecta (New Haven, CT) and Casabella (Milan), as well as short-run journals such as Megascope (Bristol) and the single-issue Signs of the Times, or Rather More Symbols than Signs (London) are presented. Several volumes of Internationale Situationniste (Paris) are also on view; the CCA Library holds the complete facsimile edition of this serial, which was reprinted in 1997 and edited by Guy Debord. Also from the CCA collection and never before presented is Peter Eisenman’s original mock-up for the first volume of Oppositions (1973). The displays are complemented by audio interviews with editors and designers of these publications such as Kenneth Frampton, Peter Cook, Lisa Ponti, Takefumi Aida, and Hans Hollein, as well as several complete facsimile magazines for visitors to browse.

Clip/Stamp/Fold 2 is the second in a series of CCA exhibitions developed in collaboration with universities. It expands upon an initial presentation at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City.

Curators: Beatriz Colomina, Princeton University, with Craig Buckley, Anthony Fontenot, Urtzi Grau, Lisa Hsieh, Alicia Imperiale, Lydia Kallipoliti, Olympia Kazi, Daniel Lopez-Perez, and Irene Sunwoo.