Davidovich, Jaime.

[RARE ARTIST'S BOOK OF VIDEO ART] Jaime Davidovich Videotapes Catalogue.

New York: self-published, [1975]. Oblong octavo (21.6 × 28 cm). Original limp black buckram wrappers with mounted photograph of a video still with the lettering of the title; 20 leaves printed to rectos with xerox copies containing numerous full-page reproductions of video stills. Very good. Item #54994

Rare, handmade catalog featuring a selection of videotapes made by Jaime Davidovich between 1972 and 1975. Each videotape is presented with production information, technical data, and a brief description of the content as well as images. The titles of the tapes are: “Road”, “Blue, Red, Yellow”, “Baseboard”, “3 Mercer Street”, "Interior", “Two Windows”, and “Surveillance”. The last page is an order form with Jaime Davidovich's postal address.

Jaime Davidovich initially began with the classic art genre of painting. Early on, however, he began to dissolve the boundaries of the medium, for example by attaching the painted canvas directly to walls, and later through installations on walls, floors, stairs, and sidewalks. Davidovich's striving for transgression was already evident here. Before he discovered film tape as a way of dissolving boundaries, he first explored the possibilities of adhesive tape. While this was initially a means of attaching canvas, he increasingly discovered it as a medium itself. When portable video technology finally emerged in the late 1960s, he had already turned to minimalism. Davidovich was one of the pioneers of the new genre of video art.

The video works "Road" (1972) and "3 Mercer Street" (1975), which are also presented in the catalog offered here, are among his first experiments in the field of video art. He then turned his attention to video installations. This catalog already marks a transition in Davidovich's work. For when cable television emerged in the mid-1970s, Jaime Davidovich was one of the first artists to transcend this artistic framework. He was involved in the founding of Cable SoHo in 1976 and a year later founded the Artists Television Network, which aimed to use commercial cable television to distribute video art. Television programs were produced in which video art, early music videos, performances and interviews with artists were broadcast until 1984. (Cf. website of the Jaime Davidovich Collection at NYU: >h ttps://findin gaids.library.nyu.e du/fales/mss_155/<, on 05/15/2025)

As of September 2025, KVK, OCLC found three copies worldwide, all in North America.