Philippe Thomas

Philippe Thomas was a French artist whose practice centred on the systematic displacement of authorship. Working from the mid-1980s until his death in 1995, Thomas developed a series of projects in which collectors, institutions, and other individuals were invited to assume his name and identity as the author of his work. His agency readymades belong to everyone®, founded in 1987, operated as both artwork and commercial structure, producing advertisements, publications, and objects in which the artist's position was transferred, sold, and redistributed.

Publications collected here document Thomas's practice and its reception, including artist publications, exhibition catalogues, and printed matter through which his system of displaced authorship entered institutional and private circulation.