By Temporary Services et al.
Chicago, IL: Temporary Services, April 2004
Pages: 36
Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5"
Cover: soft
Binding: staple-bound
Process: offset
Color: black
Edition Size: unknown
ISBN: none

In 2001, Temporary Services invited Angelo, an incarcerated artist, to write and illustrate a booklet about the ingenious, practical, and sometimes bizarre things he has seen prisoners make. Angelo generated more that 100 pages of drawings and text - representing 78 different inventions or skills. The collection offers a glimpse into the social environment of prison, where inventiveness and ingenuity are needed to satisfy even the most basic human desires.

This initial invitation led to an exhibition that included prints of Angelo's drawings and writings, along with facsimiles of the inventions constructed by Temporary Services and a long list of helpers. At Angelo's request, a full-size copy of his prison cell was also featured. The cell was built by following Angelo's detailed drawings and measurements.

This booklet includes three dialogs about this project. Full acknowledgements for Prisoners' Inventions are included at the end of this publication but special thanks are due to the participants in these dialogs who allowed them to be reprinted together for this booklet. This is booklet #61.

Contents:

Nato Thompson Interview, Transcribed from video and edited by Audrey Peiper and Jennifer Breckner. [Thompson was a curator at Mass MoCA and organized the show that first presented Prisoners' Inventions.]

'Prisoner's Inventions': An Interview with Temporary Services, By Craig Buckley

The Cell Block and the White Cube, By Jennifer Schmidt