Paik Video

Edith Decker-Phillips

Pub­lished orig­i­nally in Ger­man, Paik Video is the first Eng­lish lan­guage edi­tion of this full treat­ment of the “Father of Video Art,” Nam June Paik. Richly illus­trated with pho­tographs and descrip­tions of his works, it includes a defin­i­tive dis­cus­sion of the artist’s claim to be the first Video Artist. A “must-read” for all per­sons inter­ested in Video Art, this book will also be essen­tial to all seri­ous art col­lec­tions and is an ideal intro­duc­tion to the field. Paik was the first artist to use the TV tube as a medium for mak­ing art. Since the late 50’s, the inge­nious and out­ra­geously inven­tive, Korean-born, Amer­i­can artist has sub­jected the video medium to a con­tin­u­ous series of trans­for­ma­tions, whether pro­duc­ing inter­act­ing webs of elec­tron light by expos­ing the TV tube to mag­netic fields or cre­at­ing instal­la­tions involv­ing arrays of dozens of TV screens. His video­tapes, instal­la­tions, objects, draw­ings and prints are remark­able for the provoca­tive and enter­tain­ing way they shed light both on the insti­tu­tion of tele­vi­sion and con­tem­po­rary communication.

Fea­tures 17 full-color and numer­ous black and white pho­tographs of Nam June Paik’s video art. Pro­vides exten­sive aes­thetic and tech­ni­cal analy­ses of the whole spec­trum of Paik’s oeu­vre from the late 50’s to 1984. Also pro­vides a com­plete, the­mat­i­cally orga­nized cat­a­logue of instal­la­tions from 1963 to 1984; ample anno­ta­tions; a full bib­li­og­ra­phy; name and sub­ject indices.