The paper portion of the collection is divided into four series: Administration, Artists,
Events and Screenings, and Publications.
The Administration series reflects the business activities of MWF. Alan Moore, who was the
primary administrator for MWF throughout its existence, oversaw operations while working on
his PhD, teaching, writing and supporting a family. He acknowledged in correspondence in the
collection that he was not a businessman, and the records reflect his tendency to use and
reuse paper he had on hand for MWF business purposes. Documentation found in the
Administrative materials folders includes correspondence with vendors, customers, artists
and suppliers. In some instances, invoices may be included with the correspondence. While an
effort was made to put correspondence dealing with specific topics or artists in the folders
pertaining to those topics and artists, researchers should be aware that there may be
material of interest in the Administrative materials folders.
The folders in the Artists series may contain a variety of material - correspondence,
artwork for videotape cases, and publicity about the artist. Originally, the files were
divided into A, B, and C folders. While the A folders exclusively had material used in
making videotape covers, the B and C files could also have some of that material along with
correspondence, publicity, and original photographs. The folders have been combined into one
folder for each artist. In the 1980s and 1990s, MWF created artwork for cases by photocopying
enlarged or shrunken images and pasting them to a piece of paper before printing copies of
the completed artwork on colored paper. This process is reflected in many of the artist
files.
The Events and Screenings series documents the many events done by MWF in various venues in New York
City and the surrounding area. Flyers in the Non MWF events folders pertain strictly to
video art related exhibits and events done by other organizations.
All the Publications relate to video art in some way. Catalogs are from video exhibits as
well as businesses and organizations that sold, screened, or wrote about video art.
The XFR Collective began digitizing videotapes distributed by MWF that Alan Moore had in
his possession in July 2013. The Videotape series consists of those videotapes which XFR
Collective sent to the WCFTR after they were done digitizing them. Content from the
videotapes is available to view on the Internet Archive and at the WCFTR. As of July 2023,
XFR Collective is still working on the MWF collection and periodically sending tapes to the
WCFTR. Please contact WCFTR staff with any questions and for a list of the videotapes
available for viewing.
