Experiments in Electrostatics:
Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s
Collection, 1966–1986

Founded by photographer, printmaker, and painter Louise Neaderland in 1982, the International Society of Copier Artists (I.S.C.A.) (active 1982–2003, New York, NY) promoted the recognition of photocopy art as a legitimate medium through lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and the I.S.C.A. Quarterly, which assembled and bound original xerographic art. Though little information about the organization is available today, it consisted of nearly five hundred members, half of whom were women. The I.S.C.A. enabled these largely amateur artists to share their work with networks around the globe long before the rise of social-media platforms. Produced on the occasion of the I.S.C.A.’s 1986 exhibition in Bologna, Italy, these prints demonstrate the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and techniques of its members.