Michael B. Corbett Papers

The Michael B. Corbett Collection houses thirty-four parcels of Mail Art. Each bundle is comprised of approximately forty individual pieces of Mail Art.

The collection will be useful to researchers interested in the avant-garde movement of Mail Art. Mail Art is the exchange of art and ideas among visual, audio, and literary artists. Rather than emphasize the idea of the artist as a master creating a priceless individual piece, Mail Art encourages mass-production and free distribution of art. The Mail Artist's tools often include custom-made stamps, photography, the photocopy machine and other printing techniques as well as more traditional media such as pencils and watercolors.

Michael B. Corbett wrote, "While the mailing or opening of a letter certainly can constitute the exhibition in mail art, many pieces are made specifically for public showing in the traditional sense. Such exhibits have been held in museums, galleries, alternative spaces, shops, cafes, nightclubs, parks, the street, at festival fairs, and on people's bodies. Since mail art now encompasses diverse pursuits including video, audio, and performance, the term 'networking' has come to denote this greater umbrella of activity. Hence, I refer to myself as a networker."