Back to the Present

A 50th-anniversary celebration of the legendary arts institution Franklin Furnace. This visually rich volume captures five decades of boundary-breaking art and the ongoing fight to defend creative freedom.

In 1976, at a time when experimental art struggled to find institutional support, artist Martha Wilson founded Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. in downtown Manhattan. What began as an artist-run space devoted to serving emerging artists and their overlooked work quickly became one of the most vital platforms for avant-garde art in the United States.

As Franklin Furnace celebrates its fiftieth year, this landmark volume traces its extraordinary impact—from the gritty energy of the downtown ’70s art scene through the culture wars of the ’80s and ’90s and into today’s renewed debates around censorship, free speech, and artistic freedom.

Edited by Martha Wilson, this richly illustrated collection brings together:

• Rare, never-before-seen archival materials
• First-person accounts from artists on the front lines of cultural conflict
• Reprinted historical texts
• Newly commissioned essays
• And work by groundbreaking figures, including Jenny Holzer, Ed Ruscha, Ana Mendieta, Karen Finley, Claes Oldenburg, Eric Bogosian, and many others, whose practices reshaped contemporary art.

Both an archive and a call to action, Back to the Present documents how artists challenged institutional norms, defended First Amendment rights, and insisted on the power of art as a tool for social change.

For readers interested in contemporary art, cultural history, and the politics of social justice, this book offers an immersive look at a legendary institution—and a reminder that the struggle for creative freedom is far from over.