Editing Mail art (section)

==Philosophy and norms of the mail artist network==
In spite of the many links and similarities between historical avant-garde, alternative art practices ([[visual poetry]], [[Xerox art|copy art]], [[artist's book]]s) and mail art, one aspect that distinguishes the creative postal network from other artistic movements, schools, or groups (including Fluxus) is the way it disregards and circumvents the commercial art market.<ref name=Spark>{{cite web|title=About John Held Jr. in the Spark episode "The Fine Art of Collecting"|url=http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4489|work=Spark|publisher=KQED|access-date=11 April 2013|year=2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306062606/http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4489|archive-date=6 March 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Any person with access to a mailbox can participate in the postal network and exchange free artworks, and each mail artist is free to decide how and when to answer (or not answer) a piece of incoming mail. Participants are invited by network members to take part in collective projects or unjuried exhibitions in which entries are not selected or judged. While contributions may be solicited around a particular theme, work to a required size, or sent in by a deadline, mail art generally operates within a spirit of "anything goes."<ref name="Phillpot" />

The mail art philosophy of openness and inclusion is exemplified by the "rules" included in invitations (calls) to postal projects: a mail art show has no jury, no entry fee, there is no censorship, and all works are exhibited.<ref name="Phillpot" /> The original contributions are not to be returned and remain the property of the organizers, but a catalogue or documentation is sent free to all the participants in exchange for their works. Although these rules are sometimes stretched, they have generally held up for four decades, with only minor dissimilarities and adjustments, like the occasional requests to avoid works of explicit sexual nature, calls for projects with specific participants, or the recent trend to display digital documentation on blogs and websites instead of personally sending printed paper to contributors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artpool.hu/MailArt/chrono/1983/Bleus.html|title = Guy Bleus: Mail Art Initiation – Mail Art Chro no logy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.utsanga.it/bleus-exploring-mail-art/|title = Bleus &#124; Exploring mail-art|date = 26 June 2017}}</ref>

[[File:BananaPost'89 AnnaBanana.jpg|right|thumb|BananaPost '89 artistamps by Anna Banana, 1989]]
Mail art has been exhibited in alternative spaces such as private apartments, municipal buildings, and shop windows, as well as in galleries and museums worldwide.<ref name=Oberlin /> Mail art shows, periodicals, and projects represent the "public" side of postal networking, a practice that has at its core the direct and private interaction between the individual participants. Mail artists value the process of exchanging ideas and the sense of belonging to a global community that is able to maintain a peaceful collaboration beyond differences of language, religion and ideology; this is one aspect that differentiates the mail art network from the world of commercial picture postcards and of simply "mailed art."<ref name="WelchAnthology">Welch, C. (1995). ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/231651233 Eternal network: A mail art anthology]''. Calgary, Alta: Univ. of Calgary Press.</ref>

A mail artist may have hundreds of correspondents from many different countries, or build a smaller core circle of favorite contacts. Mail art is widely practiced in Europe, North and South America, Russia, and Australia with smaller numbers of participants also in Africa, and China.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} In addition to being kept by the recipient, mail art archives have attracted the interest of libraries, archives, museums, and private collectors.<ref name=Spark /> Or, the works may be 'worked into' and recycled back to the sender or to another networker.

[[File:Envelope HRFricker(1990).jpg|right|thumb|Mail art envelope from H. R. Fricker, 1990]]
Ray Johnson suggested (with a pun) that "mail art has no history, only a present", and mail artists have followed his playful attitude in creating their own mythologies.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ray Johnson : correspondences|last1=Johnson|first1=Ray|last2=De Salvo|first2=Donna|last3=Gudis|first3=Catherine|date=1999|publisher=Wexner Center for the Arts|isbn=2080136631|page=81|oclc=43915838}}</ref> Parody art movements like [[neoism]] and plagiarism have challenged notions of originality, as have the shared pseudonymous names [[Monty Cantsin]] and [[Karen Eliot]], which were proposed for serial use by anyone.<ref name="Carr2012">{{cite book|author=C. Carr|title=On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QX9ZSOWJO-gC&pg=PA105|date=9 April 2012|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-7242-4|pages=105ff}}</ref> Semi-fictional organizations have been set up and virtual lands invented, imaginary countries for which [[artistamps]] are issued.<ref name=":0" /> Furthermore, attempts have been made to document and define the history of a complex and underestimated phenomenon that has spanned five decades. Various essays, graduate theses, guides and anthologies of mail art writings have appeared in print and on the Internet, often written by veteran networkers.<ref name=WelchAnthology /> A sub-group of envelope art has its genesis in the [[Grateful Dead]] Ticket Service. Looking to help their fans avoid the high fees that are generated by national ticket services the Grateful Dead started their own service, commonly referred to as mail order. At some point fans started decorating their envelopes with art. Some for art's sake, others to grab the attention of the people that dole out tickets in hope of better seats.

[[File:Artiststamps PCiani(c.1995).jpg|right|thumb|Sheet of artistamps by Piermario Ciani, c. 1995]]