Unpaginated mimeographed booklet (six sheets, printed recto only) including a cover page and five pages of typed text, not illustrated, distributed in connection with the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Pasadena Art Museum. Quarto (10 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Stapled mimeographed self-wrappers with typed cover and blank back cover. Some wear and chipping to front cover, rear cover browned, overall very good. N.p. (Pasadena?): Allan Kaprow, 1966. Allan Kaprow was a pioneer in the field of performance art, helping to establish the "Environment" and the "Happening" in the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, he held over 200 happenings. In his early career, they began as scripted events, in which the audience and performers follow cues, but without a set beginning or ending. His most famous happenings started in the 1960s, when he would take a group to a specific site or location to experience or perform a small event or action.
This Happening was organized in connection with The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and The Pasadena Art Museum. Kaprow's notes on the final page of the booklet read, "'Self-Service' will be performed without spectators. Participation in at lease [sic] one of its parts is required, although many (or all) would be preferable...The Happening is planned for three cities, over a period of four months, June through September, and its activities will occur among those of the participants' normal life. None of these are necessarily coordinated...There will be a preliminary meeting in each city for those interested in participating, at which "Self-Service" will be discussed and the parts distributed. There will be no rehearsals and the work will not be repeated."
The dates given are June 8, July 6, August 3, and September 7 for Boston; June 9, July 1, August 5, and September 3 for New York; and June 24, July 12, August 18, and September 21 for Los Angeles. This particular copy was meant to accompany the Los Angeles dates, as it is noted on the cover page that a meeting was to be held at the Pasadena Art Museum on Sunday, June 12, 1966 at 2 pm.
The other pages of text contain lists and descriptions of "Available Activities" for the three cities. Some of these include: "Couples make love in hotel rooms. Before they check out, they cover everything with large sheets of black plastic film"; "On the streets, kids give paper flowers to people with pleasant faces"; "People stand on bridges, on street corners, watch cars pass. After two hundred red ones, they leave"; "Many shoppers begin to whistle in aisles of supermarket. After a few minutes they go back to their shopping"; "Cars drive into a filling station, erupt with white foam pouring from windows"; "People listen to records in glass booths. They look at each other and dance"; and "A path of slices of bread and jam is made for a great distance in the woods"; and many other equally bizarre ones.
A scarce script from an important figure in American performance art; as of October 2025, OCLC locates five holdings of "Self-Service" scripts in North American institutional libraries. At least one of these is also a Pasadena version, but we do not know which of the three cities all five of the scripts pertain to.
