James Hoff: Top Ten: 1998-2008

‘Top Ten: 1998–2008’ is a new edition of the long-out-of-print publication by James Hoff.

In almost every issue since April 1998, Artforum has asked an individual from the art world to compile a top ten list of their favorite recent exhibitions (or concerts, television programs, books, events, etc.). In this volume, Hoff compiles the first ten years of this column into a new publication, with all of the articles’ accompanying images redacted, rendering the pictorial layout and design as a single graphic plane of black squares and occasional ovals.

By reducing the column to its graphic skeleton, the artist forces the reader’s attention to the text, as well as to the strategies the authors used for constructing it. The publication offers a parallel, perhaps even casual, reading of art-making during its ten-year span, capturing a who’s who of cultural critics and producers as chosen by the magazine.

James Hoff is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. He is a co-founder and director at Primary Information.