The Pre-Presidential Library of the United States

The Pre-Presidential Library of the United States
Retrospective Press

90p, 27 x 21 cm, Perfect Bound, Digital Print, b/w w Gold Gloss Varnish Cover

Printed in a first edition of 250
Signed by the artist
London, 2019

A selection of 87 Donald Trump tabloid covers from the 80s-90s, drawn from a much larger collection compiled by the artist in 2007 when she reviewed 10,000 covers – the combined output of New York City’s two leading tabloids up to the millennium – leading to her acclaimed 2007 exhibition, Newsroom, at New York’s Mary Boone Gallery.

Covering a period before the predominance of 24-hour television news; Pre-Presidential Library allows us to reflect on the historical significance of the tabloid print media, and its distribution in the public space, and an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between value and attention. What makes the news and why?

As, Mir discovered during her research; in the 15-year period leading up to the millennium news relating to Donald Trump made the front covers on 87 occasions; in contrast, the AIDS crisis, which during the same period claimed the lives of over 75,000 New Yorkers, featured just 13 times.

In contrast to Presidential libraries, the often monumental buildings which serve as the official repositories of a President and their administration, Mir’s Pre-Presidential Library is an open source project that – as the artist puts it – ‘anyone, anywhere’ can research, host or develop.

Thank You: The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York