2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II

Published by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, to accompany the 1999–2000 retrospective of the same name (Walker Art Center, October 9, 1999 – January 2, 2000, then touring to three further venues), this is the most comprehensive monograph to date on Bruce Conner (1933–2008), one of the most inventive and elusive figures in postwar American art.

Across roughly 280 pages it surveys five decades of Conner’s restless, cross-disciplinary practice: assemblage, found-object sculpture, drawing, collage, printmaking, photograms, and the pioneering experimental films (A Movie, Cosmic Ray, Crossroads) that made him a foundational figure in American avant-garde cinema. Edited by Joan Rothfuss, with essays by Walker director Kathy Halbreich and curators Bruce Jenkins and Peter Boswell, and designed by Andrew Blauvelt with Erin Mulcahy, the volume is profusely illustrated with 75 four-color and 175 black-and-white plates and finely printed in Germany by Cantz.

Extensive back matter includes an exhibition checklist, chronology, selected bibliography, filmography, and index. The catalogue received second prize in the 1999–2000 International Association of Art Critics (AICA/USA) awards. The playful title nods to Conner’s lifelong resistance to retrospective summary. It is a sequel to a “Part I” that never existed.