Assemblage, Environments & Happening by Allan Kaprow

Allan Kaprow's artist’s book, bound in coarse brown burlap and embossed with the title Assemblage, Environments & Happenings, can be regarded as a fundamental "codex" of these then-emerging art forms, which incorporated the materials of real life—written from an authentic perspective. Rather than offering a retrospective view, it emerges from within the creative process itself, driven by the intent to reflect on and further develop the concept of the Happening.

The book’s rich visual material presents not only Kaprow’s own assemblages, environments, and happenings but also the works of fellow artists, including Robert Whitman, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Wolf Vostell, and George Brecht. At the very center of the book, in a programmatic sequence of images, Kaprow asserts his claim to the "legacy" of Jackson Pollock. He does so by juxtaposing a photograph of Pollock immersed in his signature "all-over" action painting with an image of himself in the midst of his auto tire all-over from the environment Yard.