Cette thèse envisage le phénomène du livre d’artiste tel qu’il se développe dans sa relation à la notion et à la pratique d’exposition depuis les années 1960. L’exposition est ici considérée selon un double point de vue : d’une part comme le dispositif institutionnel le plus courant de manifestation de l’art ; d’autre part comme une fonction se rapportant à la visibilité des oeuvres. Il apparaît alors que les livres et les éditions d’artistes peuvent s’appréhender entre pratiques alternatives à l’exposition et pratiques d’exposition alternatives. Pratiques d’exposition alternatives dans la mesure où le livre et l’imprimé sont potentiellement des modes de visibilité de l’art ; pratiques alternatives à l’exposition parce que ce moyen de visibilité est très différent de ce que l’on nomme usuellement une exposition. À travers l’étude de cette tension dialectique entre l’édition et l’exposition, il s’agit de préciser quelle est l’économie artistique et quelles sont les conditions de réception esthétique que proposent les livres et les éditions d’artistes, et ainsi de comprendre en quel sens et à l’égard de quelles normes ou de quelles instances ils ont une valeur dite « alternative ». De la sorte, il est également question de la place qu’occupentles livres d’artistes dans le système de l’art contemporain et des effets qu’ils exercent sur celui-ci / This thesis considers the phenomenon of the artist’s book as it develops in its relation to the concept and to the practice of exhibition since the 1960s. The exhibition is considered here in a double perspective: on the one hand as the most common institutional apparatus for the manifestation of art, and secondly as a function related to the visibility of the artworks.It further appears that artists’ books and artists’ publications can be grasped inbetween alternative practices to exhibition and alternative exhibition practices. Alternative exhibition practices insofar as book and printed mater are potential modes of visibility of art ; alternatives practices to exhibition because this way of visibility is very different from what we usually call an exhibition.Through the study of this dialectical tension between publishing and exhibition, we aim to clarify what are the economics of art and the conditions of aesthetic reception that books and artists’ publications offer; thus we aim to understand in what sense and with respect to which norms or instances they have what one may call an “alternative” value. From this perspective, this thesis is also about the place of artists’ books in the system of contemporary art and the effects they have on it

As publicações de artistas são uma das principais formas de manifestação da arte do século 20: tanto por serem originárias da modernidade artística, quanto por marcarem aspectos próprios da linguagem contemporânea. Como formas operativas potencialmente acolhedoras do trabalho coletivo entre artistas e poetas, materializando um espírito de rede, analisamos algumas publicações de artistas brasileiras dos anos 1970 presentes no acervo do MAC USP. De livros de artistas a revistas literárias, as publicações coletivas são consideradas veículos de comunicação bem como da própria arte. Enquanto produtos do design gráfico, tais edições estabelecem relações entre ler e ver, palavras e imagens, propondo desafios críticos e museológicos. Após apresentar um estudo geral sobre as publicações de artistas, buscamos organizar nossa reflexão em dois grandes grupos, as relações entre Poesia e Visualidade e Poesia e Performatividade, como modos de se apropriar artisticamente dos objetos editáveis e publicáveis. No primeiro caso, ligados a uma tradição construtiva, os poetas e artistas estão interessados na construção visual de suas obras e em seus efeitos, criando uma poesia visual ou uma imagem visual poética. No segundo, aliados sobretudo ao tropicalismo e à poesia marginal, servem-se das publicações para atingir e interagir com o leitor ou o público, através do potencial imagético e performático da palavra e de imagens visuais poeticamente construídas enquanto enunciados discursivos e socialmente identificados na cultura de massa. / The artists publications are one of the main forms of art manifestation in the 20th century: both because they originate on the modernity period of art, and by bringing aspects inherent to the contemporary means of expression. We analyze some editions of Brazilian artists from the 1970s, as operative forms, potentially welcoming to collective work of artists and poets, which materialize a network impulse. They are all part of Museum of Contemporary Art at USP collection. From artistic books to literary journals, collective publications are considered means of communication as well as objects of art per se. As products of graphic design, such editions establish relations between reading and seeing, words and images, setting up some critical and museologic challenges. After introducing with a general study about the artists publications, we aim to organize our reflection in two larger groups: the relations between Poetry and Visuality and the one between Poetry and Performativity, as ways of appropriating artistically some editable and publishable materials. In the former, connected to a constructive tradition, poets and artists are interested in visual construction of their works and their effects, creating some kind of visual poetry or a visual poetic image. In the latter, aligned mostly to Tropicalism and marginal poetry, the artists use the publications to reach out and interact with a certain public or reader, through the imagetic and performatic potential of the words and poetically visual images constructed as discursive utterances that are socially identified in mass culture.