99g was a mail art project by ABC which embraced the constraints of the postal system. The project was presented at the UK’s National Museum of Computing, located at the historic Bletchley Park, as part of Pushing the Envelope: An Exhibition of Mailed and Communication Art curated by Lucy Helton. On view from November 2, 2024 to March 30, 2025

Inspired by the inventive ways artists and traders have historically navigated customs regulations, 99gs explored the possibilities and limitations of sending books through the post. While shipping books internationally has become increasingly complex, letters containing correspondence and weighing under 100g remained exempt from tax and customs charges. Taking this threshold as its starting point, ABC and Lucy Helton invited a selection of international artists to produce a book weighing no more than 99 grams.

Each artist posted their work in a standard first-class envelope, adhering to the postal restrictions of their respective countries. The books travelled individually through the postal system, arriving to Bletchley Park over the course of the exhibition. The gradual accumulation of publications meant the project was not complete until the end of the show.

Artists: Andreas Schmidt, Anya Jasbar, Arnaud Desjardin, Asami Murakami, Barry Stone, Carla Salem, Cat Madden, Christine Demias, Claude Closky, Claudia de la Torre, David Schulz, Elinor O'Donovan, Elsa Werth, Erik Benjamins, Eugenie Shinkle, Fernanda Aránguiz Mardones, Fredrik Averin, George Grace Gibson, Georgia Metaxas, Hwang Eunyoung, Indianna Solnik, Ivonne Gargano, Jesse Rivers, Jessica Williams, John MacLean, Jonathan Lewis, Jonathan Schmidt-Ott, Jumana Emil Abboud, Karla Zorrilla, Laura Pilar Delgado, Leah Hickey, Louis Porter, Lucy Helton, MacDonaldStrand, Maria Ahmed, Micah Lexier, Michael Günzburger, Micheál O'Connell/MOCKSIM, Molly Soda, Oliver Griffin, Pedro Torres, Rahel Zoller, Rosaire Appel, Sara Kaaman, Scott Robertson, Stewart Hardie, Wil van Iersel, William Joys and Woosung Sohn

ABC CHOP was a collaboration between ABC [Artists’ Books Cooperative] and ACRE to establish a temporary ‘chop shop’ - The Chop. A one-month performative residency took place over August and September 2025, during which ABC members organised a series of curated happenings - talks, gatherings and performances within the chop shop. ABC CHOP interrogated the role of the shop by presenting bookworks and other multiples that were often overlooked or untraceable within the social, economic and geographic constraints of the contemporary art market.

BASIC NEEDS, a reference to a British product line of the same name, where simple household necessities from electrical fuses to sewing needles are made available by the company to local shops across the country. Arranged on metal stands and easily recognisable through their distinct, minimalist packaging, BASIC NEEDS products are themselves almost works of art, inspiring several artists over time. Each ABC member was invited to submit something that considers, interrogates, plays on or with the idea of a ‘basic need’, especially within a transactional environment of a shop or the broader consumer societies we all live in.

To calculate the price for the chop shop works, each member was asked to itemise materials, time and other production costs which included travel to Berlin. The value of members’ time has been fixed at the German minimum hourly wage at the current rate €12.82 pr/hr.

Staff list: Claudia de la Torre, George Grace Gibson, John MacLean, Jonathan Lewis, Jonathan Schmidt-Ott, Louis Porter, Lucy Helton, Oliver Griffin, Rahel Zoller, and Wil van Iersel.

Suppliers: Claudia de la Torre, George Grace Gibson, Hwang Eunyoung, Jessica Williams, John MacLean, Jonathan Lewis, Jonathan Schmidt-Ott, Karla Zorrilla, Louis Porter, Lucy Helton, MacDonaldStrand, Monika Orpik, Oliver Griffin , Rahel Zoller and Wil van Iersel

In-store events: Table Chop, Camera Chop Shop, Print Chop, Scent Chop, Archive Chop and Speech Chop

Curated by ABC members Louis Porter and George Gibson, ABC Stampa pays homage to Ulises Carrión’s collectively produced but unfinished Stampa Newspaper. As with Carrión’s original, artists were invited to contribute a design for a rubber stamp and to mark where on a sheet of newspaper paper they would like their stamp to be placed. As a result, two or more artists could request the same space, therefore inviting chance and coexistence to also be collaborators on the project.

Stampa is now part of the «쿵» (Thump) exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, South Korea, from May 3, 2024, to December 29, 2024. The installation includes stamps from several Korean artists and has grown to feature contributions from 41 international artists.

Size 479 X 330mmPaper: Resa Offset Recycled, 80gsm
Original Invite

The first edition of ABC Stampa was launched at Miss Read Art Book Fair 2023, where fair visitors were invited to follow an instruction manual at the ABC table to create their own copy for a fee of five euros, and featured the following artists:

Kaitlin Chan, Shia Conlon, Enrique Doza, George Gibson, Oliver Griffin, Mishka Henner, Jonathan Lewis, Micah Lexier, John MacLean, Irma Marco, (Mocksim) Micheál O'Connell, Rose Nordin, Monika Orpik, Louis Porter, Jonathan Schmidt Ott, David Schulz, Jana Traboulsi, Elsa Werth, Jessica Williams, Duncan Wooldridge, Rahel Zoller, Karla Zorrilla, Claudia de la Torre, Wil van Iersel, MacDonaldStrand, Further Reading Press, Sticky Fingers Publishing, Taxi Cab Industries and Edition Residencies.

ABC OFFICE was an installation by the Artists’ Books Cooperative (ABC) at Filet, London, between 27 – 30 April 2023, which provided an interactive exploration of office culture.

This anonymous work environment inviteds visitors to engage with artist-made pieces that reflect themes such as office conventions, bureaucracy, co-working, and print culture, often referred to as the ‘aesthetics of administration.’

The exhibition features a range of artworks, from paperweights to crushed filing cabinets. Visitors can interact with these pieces, enjoy a drink from the water cooler, practice their golf putt, or relax to ambient office sounds while sitting in a swivel chair.

The project kicked off with the Office Party on April 27, featuring boxed wine, pineapple, cheese, and party anthems.

Staff list: Arnaud Desjardin, Claudia de la Torre, Duncan Wooldridge, George Grace Gibson, John MacLean, Jonathan Lewis , Jonathan Schmidt-Ott, Louis Porter, MacDonaldStrand, Micheal O'Connell/MOCKSIM, Mishka Henner, Monika Orpik, Oliver Griffin, Rahel Zoller, Travis Shaffer and Wil van Iersel.