S.M.S. - SHIT MUST STOP Volumes #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6. The complete run of this influential, avant garde, boxed set of ORIGINAL ART MULTIPLES.

Published by THE LETTER EDGED IN BLACK PRESS, 1968. Limited edition of only 2000.

Six illustrated paper portfolios in their original cardboard mailing boxes. The mailing boxes holding the portfolios measure 14x7.5 inches (35.5x19 cm). Each folded portfolio (containing the artworks) measures 11x7 inches (28x18 cm). The artwork multiples are of various sizes.

The six volumes include 72 of the 73 called for art multiples, each unique to this publication - including the two cassette recordings by La Monte Young and Terry Riley that were made for SMS in 1968 but never included with them, as well as art, recordings, and printed poetry made exclusively for SMS by artists including Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Yoko Ono, Oppenheim, Bruce Naumaan, John Cage, Diane Wakoski, Claes Oldenberg, Christo, Hollis Frampton, Dick Higgins, Arman, Artschwager, and many others, (lacking only the Lichtenstein Folded Hat in S.M.S. #4).

All six of these boxed sets also include their original mailing boxes, a list of the Artists, and a "Sequence Sheet". Volume #6 also includes a "LAST ISSUE" announcement card.

Also included is a 1981 Reinhold-Brown Gallery / New Museum of Contemporary Art catalog that fully describes the items in each of the six original box sets.

CONDITION: The six boxed sets of art multiples are generally in GOOD to VERY GOOD condition. The NEON CONSTRUCTION item in SMS #6 is lacking a few of its metal rings and parts but is otherwise present and complete; the TORTURED TUBE assembly kit has all its parts including an original paint tube which has leaked in its plastic bag - however this is the case in every SMS #4 I have seen or have been able to reference. (If you are considering an SMS #4 that contains the TORTURED TUBE, please make certain the condition is described or check with the seller to get a description, it would be unusual if the tube has not leaked (after all it is a "tortured tube").

A nice, complete set (Volumes 1-6) of Shit Must Stop, lacking only 1 of the 73 items, but with the often missing Cassette Tapes by La Monte Young and Terry Riley, the Yoko Ono recording, the Artists Lists and Sequence Sheets, the mailing boxes, and the descriptive 1981 catalog.

You can read about SHIT MUST STOP on Wikipedia (search "S.M.S. Portfolios"), Brandeis (a nice, succinct writeup search "Brandeis Shit Must Stop"), and many other places on the Internet.