Everything That Came In Got An Answer

Upon receipt, all incoming letters, collages, drawings, books, audio cassettes, multiples, and even boxes with complete sculptures that Summers receives are meticulously recorded in a card system.

It is estimated that the archive currently contains over 15,000 artworks, spanning from 1973 to the present—a staggering number considering that each item received by Rod Summers is answered with an original work by himself. Summers considers the VEC archive as half of a Gesamtkunstwerk, with the other half, sent by him, dispersed around the world.

Before establishing himself as an artist in Maastricht, Rod Summers (Dorset, GB, 1943) had a career in the Royal Air Force, where he served for over 13 years. As a medic, Summers was stationed in the Cannerberg, an underground military base just outside Maastricht, in 1970. Although it was the secret NATO headquarters during the Cold War, there was little remarkable activity during those years. Summers spent his days playing card games like Cribbage and checking medicine supplies.

The museum is my mailbox
At the core of the exhibition are the "incoming mail" and "outgoing mail", showcasing the most recently received mail art pieces and the works that Rod Summers will send in response. Once a week, the artist will open and respond to the mail on-site. An old motto of mail art artists states, "My mailbox is a museum." For this exhibition, the motto is reversed for the first time: "The museum is my mailbox."