John Giorno began collecting his archives as a young poet. Inspired by the collecting of Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg, he carefully traced every passing event of his career from 1965 into the present day, organizing the materials by himself in an idiosyncratic way for nearly fifty years.

The collections span published poems, publicity, press releases, photographic materials, posters and flyers, Giorno’s earliest prints and artworks, Giorno Poetry Systems records and recorded media, original artwork mechanicals, Dial-A-Poem materials, family and ancestry materials, “consumer product poems,” manuscripts, correspondences, dharma materials, and more.

From 2013–2015, a large section of the archives were processed and digitized as the John Giorno Collection. In 2015, digital images from the archives were placed in chronological order, printed, and pasted to the walls of the Palais de Tokyo on rainbow colored paper for Ugo Rondinone's I ♥ John Giorno, illuminating Giornos' life and work.