Dan Graham

Dan Graham is among the most influential of the Conceptual artists who emerged in America during the mid 1960s. A pioneer in performance and video art in the 1970s, Graham later turned his attention to architectural projects designed for social interaction in public spaces, among them The Children's Pavilion (1989) with Jeff Wall. Writing has always been a major aspect of Graham's work. His texts range from early Conceptual art pieces inserted in mass-market magazines, to writing on his fellow artists, to analyses of popular culture, from Dean Martin to the post-Punk era. Well-known also among architects and urban theorists, during the 1990s Graham has been offered major public commissions throughout North America and Europe.London-based curator Mark Francis discusses with the artist how his public participation-based work has evolved. Brussels-based critic Birgit Pelzer draws on her extensive knowledge of Graham's work and writings. New York-based architectural theorist Beatriz Colominafocuses on Graham's Alteration to a Suburban House (1978). The artist has chosen an extract from the science fiction novel Ubik by Philip K Dick, whose writings were a formative influence. A substantial Artist's Writings section, key to understanding Dan Graham, completes the book.

Birgit Pelzer is a widely respected curator and critic who has been active since the late 1960s. Her publications include Gerhard Richter, 100 Paintings (1998) and Michael Asher (1991). Her important writings on Conceptual art have been anthologized in Rewriting Conceptual Art (1999).

Mark Francis is a curator and critic based in London. He was previously Founding Director and Chief Curator of The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and has curated exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. He has organized exhibitions and written on Graham's work since 1978.

Beatriz Columina, one of the world's best known and most innovative architectural theorists, is Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Princeton University. She is the author of Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (1994), and editor of Sexuality and Space (1992) and Architecture Production (1988).