Will Holder (born Hatfield, 1969) produces publications with artists and musicians, and is preoccupied with conversation as model and tool for a mutual and improvised set of publishing conditions, whereby the usual roles of commissioner, author, subject, editor, printer and typographer are improvised and shared, as opposed to assigned and pre-determined. Particular attention is placed on an oral production of value and meaning around cultural objects, and how live, extra-informational qualities might be analysed, documented and scored.
Based in London, Holder is editor of F. R. DAVID, a journal concerned with reading and writing in the arts (published by de Appel, Amsterdam, since 2006). During 2013 he was Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. In May 2009 he co-curated Talk Show (with Richard Birkett) at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), an exhibition and season of events concerning speech and accountability. Together with Alex Waterman, he is editing and designing Yes, But Is It Edible?, a biography of American composer Robert Ashley for four or more voices (Vancouver: New Documents, forthcoming, 2014).
Image: Series edited with Alex Waterman (published by Miguel Abreu Gallery: The Kitchen; Sternberg Press; New Documents). Four books examining the role of the printed page in collective reading processes, seen through the perspective of musical production and graphic notation. The series’ grand finale is the 850 page ‘YES, BUT IS IT EDIBLE?‘ (forthcoming, August 2014), scored biography of American composer Robert Ashley, for two or more voices.