Dorothy Iannone, a story-teller and self-taught artist, has been making vibrantly subversive work for over 5 decades. The American-born, Berlin-based artist is known for her colorful, whimsical depictions of emotionally and sexually explicit narratives of her life.

She incorporates lovers and friends, dramas and charming mundanities into visually arresting image+text works, videos, sculptures, and notably a wealth of printed ephemera. These narratives interchange between third and first-person, as she incorporates autobiographical elements while simultaneously contemplating their significance. Forever searching for enlightenment, Iannone’s stories trace her journey through spiritual, emotional and carnal investigations, towards as she calls, an ‘ecstatic unity’.

Iannone spent her early career battling censorship, due to the erotic nature of her images in a time, during the early 60’s, when female sexuality was publicly berated. The Story of Bern (Or) Showing Colors displayed in the exhibition shares a seminal tale of Iannone’s advocacy for sexual liberation.

Works on view include editioned artists’ books, postcards and printed ephemera by the artist, with the earliest titles dating from 1969. In addition to material on display, several vintage titles are being made available for purchase at Printed Matter, including The Story of Bern (Or) Showing Colors, 1970, a livre d’artiste published by Iannone and Dieter Roth, and The Berlin Beauties, Berlin,1978.

On occasion of the exhibition, Printed Matter and Dorothy Iannone have released a Fundraising Edition to support the NY Art Book Fair. The work features a 1976 drawing by Ianonne, produced as a screenprint in white ink on black museum board, signed in an edition of 100. It is available exclusively at Printed Matter.