Selected Published Writing

  • Confessions of the Century (2021)

    Work, or the absence of it, was a lifelong concern for Marcel Broodthaers.

  • Laziness & Marcel Broodthaers (2021)

    There are many different components effecting our definitions of laziness and work.

  • Classism: An Introduction (2018)

    Pop culture only exists to the extent that it conforms to what the art world thinks of it.

  • Décor | Avant-Poste: An Interview with François Aubart (2018)

    French curator François Aubart interviews artist Joe Scanlan on two exhibitions he curated at the FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Nantes.

  • Paragraphs on Deceptual Art (2018)

    A reclaiming of the fundamental role and power of deception in art.

  • Not Knowing: Contemporary Art and the Amateur (2016)

    A talk on the concept of the amateur given as part of a conference organized by Inés Katzenstein for the Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires.

  • Wanderers in the Expanded Field (2014-ongoing)

    Claire Bishop and Joe Scanlan interpret Rosalind Krauss' influential diagram in relation to the act of ambient wandering.

  • Bill of Rights and Responsibilities: Mu.Zee (2012)

    A loan agreement drawn up in relation to the Mu.Zee in Ostend purchasing fifteen examples the Nesting Bookcase for their permanent collection

  • Democracy Judy (2010)

    Sometimes a ballad works on levels other than the literal subject of its lyrics.

  • Stockholm Syndrome (2010)

    A letter to the editors of Artforum and response regarding Tino Sehgal's retrospective at the Guggenheim.

  • Fair Use: Tino Sehgal (2010)

    A review of the Tino Sehgal show at the Guggenheim in the form of two certificates of authenticity.

  • Post Post Studio (2010)

    In a post post studio practice the artist makes a comeback, only now she is a paid actor performing on a set that looks just like an artist’s studio.

  • The Uses of Disorder: Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2010)

    Joe Scanlan questions long-held assumptions regarding the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

  • Sol LeWitt: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due (2010)

    First published in the Sol LeWitt 100 Views, published by Mass MoCA and Yale University Press, 2009.

  • The Brutal Truth (2009)

    If brutal artworks are an affront to codes of human conduct, then our capacity for reconciling those challenges is what engenders our stake in art.

  • 23 Thoughts About Dirt (2009)

    Some thoughts commissioned by the Bulletin of the Yale University Art Gallery for a special issue on sculpture.

  • 8 Questions in 4 Parts (2008)

    A performance lecture by Donelle Woolford (moderated by Claire Bishop and Mark Sladen) as part of the Double Agent exhibition at the ICA London.

  • Modest Proposals (2008)

    Artists do what they do in the hope of achieving a level of income that allows their art to become an all-encompassing way of life.

  • Commodify Your Dissent (2005)

    Commodify your dissent ponders the commercial exchange of objects, signs, ideas, and quotations as a form of dissent and a radical political act.

  • The Undertaker’s Art (2004)

    A TV show featuring Pierre Huyghe as a polite, if somewhat detached, funeral director who demonstrates the undertaker's art.

  • Consumption and the Self (2003)

    How artworks introduced into the marketplace can be disassociated from the frenzy of capitalist invention and consumption.

  • Lament for the Makers (2001)

    A version of William Dunbar’s infamous ode to his predecessors, updated to be an elegy for twentieth century architects and designers instead.

  • Ambulance Chasing After Culture (2000)

    Do artworks lose something "artistic" when they become products, or do they gain a wider audience?

  • The Ballad of Ed Ruscha (1999)

    What to say about Ed Ruscha.

  • Culture In Action (1993)

    An early assessment of the pros and cons of officially commissioned participatory art.