Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology

Bonnie Bates is a reference librarian at the National Gallery of Canada.

In this follow-up volume to Chuck Welch’s pioneering text Networking
Currents (1986), artists and critics from around the world articulate
the vision that is Mail Art.

Mail Art began as the Eternal Network. This concept, developed by the
French artist and poet Robert Filliou, was based on the idea that art is
essentially a global exchange of ideas, with various technologies
serving as the conduit. The Eternal Network was born in the 1960s, a
time when people questioned traditional values and began to see the
potential of emerging technologies. The “global village” of Marshall
McLuhan was a famous exemplar of the Eternal Network. As Welch points
out in the introduction, “working locally and thinking globally” was
a Mail Art belief long before it became a slogan of chic 1980s
environmentalism. In its rejection of the centrality of the artist, the
Eternal Network stands in direct opposition to traditional art culture.


This anthology does more than effectively articulate the values and
aesthetics of the Eternal Network; it serves as an inspiration to those
working toward a socially engaged art form.