0 to 9

0 to 9 was published in the late 1960s. Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer were previously unknown poets working in the bohemian outpost of New York's Lower East Side. The two were related by marriage: Acconci was married to Mayer's sister Rosemary Mayer, and both used the magazine to seek out like minded writers and readers and discover new audiences. Both Acconci and Mayer wanted to use print to explore the limits of language and experiment with typography. Acconci and Mayer published experimental poetry, utilising procedural verse techniques and found texts to undermine conventional notions of authorship. They sought contributions to 0 to 9 from authors that were out of print and out of copyright, including the writings of poets Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Arthur Gorge, Novalis, Hans Christian Andersen, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Lord Stirling, Gustave Flaubert, Gertrude Stein, and Guillaume Apollinaire. They also included excerpts from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, ninety-nine retellings of the same story, and Stefan Themerson's translation of Li Po's Drinking Alone by Moonlight. Kate Linker noted in her biography of Acconci that these writers were also chosen to be published alongside contemporary texts "in a search for predecessors for the new 'material' work of the 1960s." Originally 0 to 9 was inspired by Jasper Johns's stencil paintings, and the magazine's title comes from Johns' work 0 Through 9. Acconci and Mayer were inspired by Johns' treatment of numbers and letters as physical entities. == Production ==

Due to low rent, many artists shared space in New York City in the 1960s, increasing artistic production and collaboration. Each issue was stapled together by hand on cheap xeroxed paper. Acconci and Mayer then took copies of the magazine to independent booksellers (including Eighth Street, Gotham Book Mart, Sheridan Square and the East Side Bookstore) or mailed them to artists and subscribers. They charged $1 per issue. 0 to 9 followed in the footsteps of other Greenwich Village self-published magazines including Ted Berrigan's C Magazine, John Ashbery's Art & Literature and Fuck You by Ed Sanders. Many of the contributions from living artists were friends of Acconci and Mayer; some artists approached, including Buckminster Fuller and John Cage, declined to contribute. == Themes ==

Art criticism and artists' income The focus on words and wordplay in the magazine reflected a vast increase in artists' writing and activity throughout the 1960s; criticism of art helped to provide income for artists as well as the ability to get their messages out to a wider audience. Anna Lovatt has noted this in the work of Sol LeWitt, who contributed to 0 To 9: "For LeWitt's generation of artists (the first for whom a university education was not uncommon), criticism provided a means of financial support and the opportunity to address a broader audience, via a proliferation of new art magazines." When the journal Artforum moved its office to New York in 1967, it helped to promote art criticism to even wider audiences. Rejection of traditional artists' methods Acconci was inspired to create work that consciously reacted against traditional art norms:"It was that blank wall, that museum as a repository of blank walls, that was the impetus for many people in my generation to make art; we made art as a reaction to, as a rebellion against, the clean, white space. We made art as a reaction against the "Do-not-touch" signs in the museum". == Impact ==

Alongside the journal Art-Language, 0 To 9 became a critical part of the linguistic turn that conceptual art underwent during the 1960s, as well as literature (most clearly seen in the concrete poetry genre and works by Samuel Beckett). == Legacy ==

The shift made in 0 To 9 from visual art to public performance art reflected Acconci's own transition from writer to performer; by the magazine's final issue in 1969, Acconci was conceiving and documenting performances almost daily. This shift was in part due to Acconci realising that speaking poetry out loud is itself a transformation from the page to physical space. According to critics,0 To 9 can be seen as "the most radically eclectic journal of the mimeograph revolution". 0 To 9's experimentation with meaning and format echo issues that are debated today; its focus on how language evolves reflexively and the role of data are themes we currently explore in the digital era. In 2006, Ugly Duckling Presse reprinted 0 To 9, including its supplements, in one single edition. == Issues of 0 to 9 ==

0 to 9 ISSUE 1 (1 April 1967) An uncut mimeograph stencil was used as the cover to the first issue to show the materiality of the magazine through its printing process. Acconci recalled: "we hoped that the people we distributed it to would contribute to it". 0 to 9 ISSUE 2 (August 1967) 0 to 9 ISSUE 3 (3 January 1968) From Issue 3 of 0 to 9 onwards, Acconci began to use the magazine to experiment with the concept of interruption. His poem 'On', whilst a single work, is scattered throughout the issue in between other writings. Choreographer and dancer Yvonne Rainer also contributed to the issue; her piece 'Lecture for a group of expectant people' explored the movements a single part of the body can make. 0 to 9 ended after its sixth issue because Mayer and Acconci found it too difficult to maintain the magazine both creatively and financially, despite profit never being their main goal. When asked about the end of 0 to 9 in an interview, Acconci responded "Why was it the last issue? It had to be - I wasn't on the page anymore." Writer Kate Linker, who discusses 0 to 9 in the wider context of Acconci's career, notes that by 1969 the artist's interests had changed away from print: "Steadily, Acconci's works were moving towards the materialization of activity, inscribing the artist's presence in duration and extension." == Supplements ==

0 To 9 ISSUE 6 SUPPLEMENT Titled Street Works, this supplement was a document of public performances by artists and poets with the same title. Each contributor submitted a specific number of copies of his or her work to be collated by the editors. Organised by John Perreault, Marjorie Strider and Hannah Weiner, Street Works took place in New York in March, April, May and September 1969 utilising urban space as context for action. Contributors: Vito Acconci; Scott Burton; Rosemary Mayer; Adrian Piper == Editions ==

• 0 to 9: the complete magazine: 1967-1969 / edited by Vito Acconci & Bernadette Mayer. ISBN 9781933254203. Brooklyn, New York: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2006. ==Sources==