Do It: The Compendium

The phenomenon that is Do It has its origins in Paris, where it started as a conversation in 1993 between artists Christian Boltanski, Bertrand Lavier and curator of the exhibition Han Ulrich Obrist himself. At the time Obrist was exploring the structure and format of exhibitions and how they could be rendered more flexible and open-ended. Questions began to be asked concerning whether a show could take written instructions or "scores" by artists as a point of departure which could then be enacted, each time afresh, depending upon the idiosyncrasies and interpretations of the participants. In order to test the idea Obrist invited 13 artists to write instructions, whichw ere then translated into nine different languages and circled internationally as a book. Two years later Do It exhibitions we taking place all over the world as the artists' instructions were realized. In each exhibitions new sets of instructions were added so that now over 300 artists have contributed to the project. It is constantly evolving, metamorphosing from its initial simple conception.The Do It franchise has grown to encompass “Do It (Museum),” “Do It (Home),” “Do It (TV),” “Do It (Seminar)” as well as some “Anti-Do Its”, a “Philosophy Do It” and, most recently, a “UNESCO Children’s Do It.” 

Almost 20 years after this first conversation Do It  has been featured in at least 50 worldwide locations. This publication celebrates this monumental landmark in Obrist's vision. It paints the history of the enterprise, and gives new impetus to its future. It includes an archive of artists’ instructions, essays contextualizingDo It, documentation from the history of the exhibition and instructions by 200 artists from all over the world selected by Obrist, among them Carl Andre, Jimmie Durham, Dan Graham, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay and Rosemarie Trockel, including 60 new instructions from Matias Faldbakken, Theaster Gates, Sarah Lucas, David Lynch, Rivane Neuenschwander and Ai Weiwei, among many others.