A seminal figure in the development of Conceptual art in the late 1960s, John Baldessari often employed humour to explore the ways language, images, and artistic forms generate meaning. Created in collaboration with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s influential Lithography Workshop, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art originated from a 1971 exhibition at NSCAD’s Mezzanine Gallery, where Baldessari, unable to travel to Halifax, instructed students by letter to repeatedly write the phrase on the gallery walls. By transforming students into participants in the work, Baldessari simultaneously critiqued conventional art education and offered a playful counterpoint to the often serious intellectual concerns of conceptual art, while embracing the language-based and performative strategies that became hallmarks of the movement.

Through the decades, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art has been reproduced on everything from pencils to shopping bags. Originally conceived as an anti-establishment declaration, the phrase eventually became synonymous with Baldessari’s artistic identity and a defining icon of the contemporary art world. At the same time, the work resonates as the D.I.Y. artistic instruction manual of its era and today, a wry yet influential mantra aimed at the heart of any artist navigating the post-conceptual era.

Printed by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Lithography Workshop, published by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax.