De Maria’s Chicago Project consists of proposed sketches and correspondence for then forthcoming exhibition Art by Telephone. Conceived as a “phone-in” exhibition of conceptual art—artists would literally call in their instructions—De Maria proposed the telephone itself as art object: a standard black rotary phone installed in the gallery with an accompanying statement, “If this telephone rings, you may answer it. Walter de Maria is on the line and would like to talk to you.” Although the exhibition would open in late 1969, at the time of publication it was indefinitely postponed, existing, itself, as only a proposal.

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