Category Archives: 1997

THE NAM
Fiona Banner

‘It has been described as unreadable’. Remember telephone directories? This is a huge, 1000 page, 280,000 word compilation of textual descriptions of films concerned with the Vietnam War.

‘…..read at a stretch, Banner’s simple, clear prose is hypnotic, and as exhausting as sitting through a Vietnam all-nighter. The text cascades in front of our eyes, melding and merging, and we read Banner’s commentary as she’s watching…’ Adrian Searle, Visual Arts, The Guardian, 22 April 1997.

Published in an edition of 1000 by Frith Street Books and The Vanity Press with assistance from the Arts Council of England, 1997

280 x 208mm (280 x 213mm hardback); 1000 pages; 1-colour (black) no images; paperback- thread sewn, cover cut flush; hardback- thread sewn with printed paper case (no dust jacket)

 

UNHOLY LIBEL
Jake & Dinos Chapman

For their first major U.S. exhibition (‘Six Feet Under’ Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA, September 13-October 11, 1997) Jake and Dinos Chapman asked SecMoCo to design the accompanying publication. More than a catalogue, it was seen as a stand alone edition developing the themes and concerns of the work, as such the design took a blasphemous turn, adopting the form of the helpful reading material you could once find in the drawer of any hotel room bedside cabinet.

First published by Gagosian Gallery, US, 1997; edited, and with a text by Jake and Dinos Chapman; 215x164mm; 152pp; thread sewn; 48 color illustrations; gilt edges; brown faux-leather covers in plastic jacket, gold embossing. Print: Jim Pennington for Lithosphere, London

Context from Amazon:
Best Sellers Rank: #4,107,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Antonio A. Urdiales on December 30, 2005
‘Once again Jake and Dinos Chapman take us on a trip through the absurd. This book has a very thin narrative running through it. If you’re looking for fiction by two of the most vile of Britain’s artworld, you’ve come to the wrong place, LEAVE NOW!

The books is a series of vingettes detailing gruesome monstrosities in the style of J.G. Ballard. I’m sure there was a plot in there somewhere, but the chapters were so short (think two to three a page) and fragmented that I lost it. Mostly it just read like details from an apocalyptic surgical guide. Which isn’t for everybody. But if you enjoy exploding brains and monstrous genitalia, LA TEE DA! The written word was fun if not tiring. But the real beauty of the book is in the plates of the boys sculptures. The sculptural work of the Chapman brothers is grotesque divinity, detailing mutated children from a land in which all normal notions of beauty have been subverted. And the colored plates dispersed throughout the writings were excellent examples of their sculptural works and just truly a joy to look at. The book is also gilt edged with a beautifully embossed cover, it’s also a very tiny book which makes one desire to carry it around as a horrifying talisman of the new age. This book is a VERY rare artbook as well, created by the Gagosian Gallery in New York. An edition of this book costs about $100 to thousands for signed copies. I would highly recommend picking up an edition up if you’re a collector of YBA artworks or the Chapman brothers, I wouldn’t doubt that the price will skyrocket in coming years.’

http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Libel-Six-Feet-Under/dp/1880154145