Make-Ready Works
2010–

The Make-Ready works are produced during the printing of exhibition-related ephemera, such as monographic catalogues, exhibition posters or brochures. “Makeready” is a printing term referring to the sheets that are run through the press during set up. The make-ready sheets guarantee that the ink levels, dampening solution, rollers, plates, and blankets are all operational, and print ready. In the process of inking the plates, discarded or junk sheets that have already been printed on for previous jobs are used in order to conserve paper. The result is an overlay of multiple publications on a single sheet, a “readymade” collage of the activities of the print house.

Uncut Make-Ready Works

These works use the raw sheet size to define the scale of the work and are presented as either single sheets (or signatures if the print is intended for a bound publication), or groups of sheets (if the final publication is made up of multiple signatures). For example, the book Walead Beshty: Selected Correspondences 2001–2010 (Damiani, 2010) was 128 pages long, which was produced using eight 16-page signatures, thus the Make-Ready work contains eight parts. For single sheet publications, such as posters, each Make-Ready work consists of only one sheet.

Bound Make-Ready Works

In the case of the monographic catalogues, such as Walead Beshty: Selected Correspondences 2001–2010 (Damiani, 2010) or Walead Beshty: Natural Histories (JRP|Ringier, 2011/expanded second edition, 2014), the makeready sheets are trimmed and bound in a manner identical to the format of the books. In the case of the guest-edited Blind Spot 46, the makeready sheets are bound accordingly and presented as a magazine.

Titling Convention:

The date attributed to the work is the year of its first exhibition, which is separate from the production date included in the work’s title. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

Make-Ready 3: Uncut Signature [Walead Beshty: Securities and Exchanges, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art: Beijing, Jing Cai Shi Ji, Beijing, China, September 23, 2011]
2011
Seven-color offset lithographic print
on coated paper
34 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches

Here annotated:
Make-Ready 3: Uncut Signature [Walead Beshty: Securities and Exchanges [title of publication], Ullens Center for Contemporary Art [publisher]: Beijing [city of publisher], Jing Cai Shi Ji [printing house], Beijing, China [city and state/country of printing house], September 23, 2011 [date(s) of printing]]
2011 [date of first exhibition]
Seven-color offset lithographic print on coated paper [media]
34 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches [dimensions]