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Made in USA was an art and fashion periodical published by the collaborative work of, the Bernadette Corporation. The Bernadette Corporation was founded in 1994 by it’s core artists; Bernadette van Huy, John Kelsey, and Antek Walzcak. The artists shared a common understanding that “a corporation was the perfect alibi for not having to fix an identity." The magazine consisted of three separate issues over the span of three years (1999-2001). Each issue is unique in its artistic style and content as well as its relation to the art market and fashion industry. The purpose of the magazine was to create an art journal specifically aimed at artists living in New York City during the late 1990s/early 2000s and to comment on the growing fashion industry in the United States of America. The magazine ceased publication after the 2001 issue due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when the founding artists of this work decided to take a different approach for their next project.

Issue One (1999)
Publisher: Bernadette Corporation

Editor in Chief: Bernadette Van-Huy

Editors: John Kelsey, Antek Walzcak

Writers and Artists in this issue: Thomas Hirschhorn, Miltos Manetas, Bernadette Van-Huy, Jeff Rian, American Manufacturing/Sadie Laska, Marcelo Krasilcic, Actress (American band), The Stand, Patterson Beckwith, Rob Pruitt/Jonathan Horowitz, Ines Kaag, Desiree Heiss, Patrick Li, Jim Fletcher, Rita Ackermann, John Kelsey, Carissa Rodriguez, Dike Blair, Serge Daney, Antek Walzcak, Wandering Archive

The first issue of Made in USA was published in 1999 by the Bernadette Corporation. The art and fashion magazine featured an array of articles surrounding the fashion industry and life in New York City during the new age of the 1990s. As John Kelsey discussed in “Surfaces are for slipping up” this issue was about how people created their own spaces. The artists saw it as the “empty wide space” trend that people could escape to and find meaning in. The cover of the magazine features three images collaged together to create a Do It Yourself look. One of the images is a photograph of a topless woman wearing jeans, her hair is covering her face and there is a black censorship bar covering her chest. The other colored photograph is of three cars parked on a lawn. The third image is a collaged picture of a female model, the censorship bars appear on her as well. This issue is broken up into five parts, each consisting of numerous lifestyle articles, interviews with fashion designers, photo spreads, and minimalistic advertisement. Most of the images are in black and white and are paired with philosophical texts on the adjacent page. In Part Two, the first article titled A Pose is Worth A Thousand Pictures, discusses the influences on young girls within society. Part Three continues the DIY lifestyle magazine approach while mocking the DIY culture of the 1990s with the interview between Rob Pruitt and Jonathan Horowitz; where they discuss how Martha Stewart crafts have become part of a capitalist society in which the producer becomes a consumer. The interview text is framed by images of mock advertisements for DIY ideas. One example is an image of pennies in a pile on the floor with bold text instructing the viewer to, “Instead of storing pennies in a jar, toss them into a pile on the floor.”

Issue Two (2000)
Publisher: Bernadette Corporation

Editor in Chief: Bernadette Van-Huy

Editors: John Kelsey, Antek Walzcak

Art Direction: Bernadette Corporation, Danko Steiner, Ritsko Uchida

Writers in this issue: Miltos Manetas, Antek Walzcak, Chris Kraus, Art Club 2000, Jim Fletcher, Olivier Zahm, John Tremblay, News Room, Stephane Mallarme, Norbert Schoerner, Katja Rahlwes, Marc Ascoli, Jutta Koether, John Kelsey, Dike Blair, Rob Pruitt, Richard Maxwell, Bennet Simpson, Carissa Rodriguez, David Barker

Artists in this issue: Paige Knight, Caroline Torem-Craig, Jennifer Herrema, Jutter Koether, Run 9, Cris Moor, Mark Borthwick, Jack Pierson, Duc Liao, Katja Rahlwes, Rita Ackermann, Annika Von Hausswolff, Lothar Hempel, Piotr Uklanski, Ricci Albenda, Ines Kaag, John Minh Nhuyen

Front Cover: photo by Cris Moor

Back Cover: Fashion photos by Mark Borthwick, detail of installation by Fabrice Hybert

The second publication of Made in USA was released in 2000. The front cover is in colour and features a woman’s face wearing sunglasses. Next to her is a decorative vase. This issue follows the same DIY style of the first issue, with the collaboration of lifestyle articles and collaged photo spreads. Similar to the first issue, this edition makes commentary on popular culture by discussing the celebrity status of Hollywood actor; Tom Cruise. The Bernadette Corporation continues to incorporate popular culture into their magazine but in an alternative manner.

Issue Three (2001)
Publisher: Bernadette Corporation

Editor in Chief: Bernadette Van-Huy

Editors: John Kelsey, Antek Walzcak

Writers/Artists in this issue: Peter Scott, Miltos Manetas, Jutta Koether, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bless, Werner Von Delmont, Eva Svennung, John Kelsey, Patterson Beckwith, Jim Fletcher, Vanessa Beecroft, Bernett Simpson, Carey Young, Anders Edstrom, David Barker, Gareth James, Antek Walzcak

The third and final issue of Made in USA was published in 2001. The group decided that this was going to be their final edition of the art and fashion magazine because they were moving onto creating a collective novel shortly after. This issue differed from the others as it took on a more minimalistic style that coincided with the fashion industry at the time. This cover itself imitates something that one may see on a more popular fashion magazine like Vogue. The cover features a side view of a woman wearing a simple dress and shoes and a photograph of a woman modelling another dress. Both images are accompanied by the simple colour blocked background of a green, white, and grey colour scheme. Inside the magazine, the arrangement of text and image appears in a new disorganized way than seen in the earlier issues. Some of the contents are similar to what would be seen in popular lifestyle magazines during this time however, they are composed in an alternative way to emphasis the rejection of conformism.

Fashion
Made in USA uses fashion as a tool to present the conceptual artwork of the publication. John Kelsey, member of the magazine’s founding group, the Bernadette Corporation, states that, “there was always this idea of using the fashion image in other ways to destabilize it and use it as a surface to think about other things.” Readers can see how this idea was implemented throughout the magazine with fashion photography placed next to philosophical texts. The core artists of the group were involved in the fashion industry before releasing the first issue of the magazine. They ran photoshoots featuring brands like Fila, Columbia Sportswear, and Nike, Inc. to compliment their own line. Van-Huy, one of the core artists of the Bernadette Corporation, explained how “[they] spent hours at magazine stands daily poring over fashion magazines.” Fashion had always been a part of the corporation’s identity as artists and they incorporated their appreciation and skepticism of the fashion industry in the magazine. Made in USA was influenced by the growing fashion industry and the corporate economy in the USA. The artists discussed their fascination with the idea of a corporation when they gave themselves the name, Bernadette Corporation. This idea played into their magazines as they commented on designer fashion brands like Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein. They also refused to use agency models in their photospreads and instead used models they found in the yellow pages. In the first issue of the magazine, the interview with NYC band Actress, discusses the budding corporation of Starbucks and how it lacks identity.

Criticism
The late 1990s magazine is not a form of popular print culture but rather an alternative form that criticizes popular magazines from the 1990s era. Although the Bernadette Corporation is widely known in the art community, their publication of Made in USA is not one of their most recognized artworks. Their film projects and collective novel, “Reena Spawlings: A Novel by Bernadette Corporation” are their more well-known projects. Their crossover into fashion was recognized by other periodicals such as Artforum and Dazed as well as a few interviews. In Techniques of Today, Bennett Simpson relates the magazine’s use of fashion as a tool for understanding youth culture to “what Foucault called ‘dispositifs’ of the institutional art and fashion industry.” Art critics like Simpson and Janet Sarbanes uncover the art historical meaning of the magazine by discussing the intent of the magazine and how it is rooted in the alternative lifestyle during the 1990s. Sarbanes addresses the use of free thinking by the Bernadette Corporation in the magazine as a marketing tool. It was understood that the magazine was questioning the pop fashion influence on society and wanted to incorporate new ideas in the magazine.

Advertising
In all three issues of Made in USA, the Bernadette Corporation has appropriated popular advertisements and made them their own by adding text over the existing ads. Throughout the magazine there are advertisements for popular designer brands in the USA. Most of these advertisements consist of black text on a white background and are minimalistic in composition. The artists invite the reader to reflect on how brand names are presented to them in popular magazines. The Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein advertisements take on the alternative collage style of the magazine. The Hugo Boss advertisement features a clean cut male model gazing into the distance. The artists have drawn on top of the image imitating a graffiti style the word “Boss” and other remarks. The other advertisement at the end of the magazine for Calvin Klein features the famous model Kate Moss. The artists have again added similar graffiti mocking the brand name.