This term was first used in the 1960s to describe an artwork that was neither a print not an editioned cast sculpture but was still intended to be produced in large numbers. It is a distinctly 20th century phenomenon that resulted from the questioning of the role of the artist in the age of industrialisation, certain art movements from Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism began to question the role of the artist in the making of art. The artist could take on the role of the fabricator and employ the materials and methods of industrial production, or become the supplier of a 'blueprint' for someone else to manufacture the 'work of art'. In the 1960s a number of galleries and print publishers produced multiples, including the Lisson Gallery, Editions Alecto, Petersburg Press and Waddington Graphics. The following two decades, in Britain, were a comparatively quiescent period, though in the USA and mainland Europe artists such as Claus Oldenberg, Yoko Ono, Dieter Rot and Joseph Beuys continued to make multiples. The 1990s saw British artist re-engage with the concept, and the economic up turn in the UK created a new market for such works. Many artists made and published their own works; this was the generation that eschewed the gallery system and organised and curated their own exhibitions. The Multiple Store, founded by Sally Townsend and Nicholas Sharp (www.multiplestore.org) added a different dimension, and the production values they espoused enabled artists to use the latest hi-tech production methods.

The question of the size of an edition has been debated: the constructivists of the 1960s had favoured unlimited editions, but practical issues tended to limit these to between 50 and 100 copies. For artists in the 1990s who were self-publishing, and not employing fabrication by others as a mode of production, editions tended to be limited to three so the work was neither unique nor one of a pair, and did not commit the artist to time consuming repetitive manufacture.

Further reading: Stephen Bury, Artists' Multiples 1935-2000, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Aldershot, 2001