Throughout Printed Matter’s history, storefront windows have served as the face of the organization, providing artists with the opportunity to produce and display site-specific works. When founding member Lucy Lippard was first presented with 2 large windows at the Lispenard Street location in 1976, she decided to launch a highly visible installation program as a form of public art. Her long-running series featured early career exhibitions by artists including Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Antoni Muntadas, and Richard Prince. The program became a platform for politically provocative art, aiming to raise consciousness around issues such as gentrification, misogyny, nuclear proliferation, and poverty.

Today the PM Window Series has a broader mandate, regularly evoking themes of political and social justice as well as providing a space for emerging artists to create installations in association with their publications.

Window installations are also presented as part of larger store exhibitions and in conjunction with book launches and publishing projects, giving the artists broader institutional support by granting access to our organization’s most publicly visible space, seen by the hundreds of passersby each day.