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PUBLISHER
Aperture

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 7.25 x 9.25 in. / 240 pgs / illustrated throughout.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
No longer our product

DISTRIBUTION
Contact Publisher
Catalog:

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781597112949 TRADE
List Price: $55.00 CDN $65.00

AVAILABILITY
Not Available

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APERTURE

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape

Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Introduction by Lucy R. Lippard. Text by Vince Aletti, Barry Blinderman, Cynthia Carr, David Cole, Shannon Ebner, Leonard Fink, Karen Finley, Nan Goldin, Félix Guattari, Wade Guyton, Melissa Harris, Elizabeth Hess, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Peter Hujar, Fran Lebowitz, Sylvère Lotringer, Carlo McCormick, Henrik Olesen, Wendy Olsoff, Adam Putnam, Tom Rauffenbart, James Romberger, Emily Roysdon, Marion Scemama, Gary Schneider, Amy Scholder, Kiki Smith, Andreas Sterzing, Zoe Strauss, Marvin J. Taylor, Lynne Tillman, Wolfgang Tillmans.

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social LandscapeDavid Wojnarowicz's use of photography, often done in conjunction with writing or painting, was extraordinary—as was his way of addressing the AIDS crisis and issues of censorship and homophobia. Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, begun in collaboration with the artist before his death in 1992 and first published in 1994, engaged what Wojnarowicz would refer to as his "tribe" or community. Contributors—from artist and writer friends such as Karen Finley, Nan Goldin, Kiki Smith, Vince Aletti, C. Carr and Lucy R. Lippard, to David Cole, the lawyer who represented him in his case against Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association—together offer a compelling, provocative understanding of the artist and his work. Brush Fires is also the only book that features the breadth of Wojnarowicz's work with photography. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of Brush Fires, when interest in the artist's work has increased exponentially, this expanded and redesigned edition of this seminal publication puts the work in front of an audience all over again while maintaining the integrity of the original. Through the lens of various contributors, the book addresses Wojnarowicz's profound legacy: the relentless censorship and ethical issues, alongside his aesthetic brilliance, courage and influence.
David Wojnarowicz was born in Redbank, New Jersey, in 1954 and died of AIDS in New York in 1992. His artwork is in numerous private and public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, among other institutions. The author of five books, Wojnarowicz attained national prominence as a writer and advocate for AIDS awareness, and for his stance against censorship.

Featured image is reproduced from David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Bookforum

Olivia Laing

The word undone attests to his capacity for making an emotional connection with viewers, but also to the magical way in which his art seems even now to rewrite the world by restoring that which has been written out of history.

ARTnews

Alex Greenberger

In Aperture’s new and expanded 20th-anniversary rerelease, Brush Fires in the Social Landscape retains every bit of the high-intensity rage, sadness, and fear that Wojnarowicz’s work always had. With its focus on prejudice against gays during the time of the AIDS crisis, Wojnarowicz’s work could easily feel like a time capsule, but it doesn’t.

American Photo

Krystal Grow

It is potent, subversive, and heartbreaking

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/10/2015

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape

David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape

"A friend of mine recently killed himself," David Wojnarowicz wrote in 1990, "and I can't let go of him; he has followed the first flight to Miami and now it is going towards dusk and I'm sitting in a replica of the earlier waiting room waiting for the plane to be announced. My boyfriend Tom is wandering the billion shops of the airport and I am smoking a cigarette and thinking about Death. A man on the balcony takes a Kodak picture of the sunset and uses a flash attachment—what does he hope to illuminate? If I could I'd descend the stairs and run with my eyes closed all across those runways to the far horizon and break through the screen of dusk as if it were a large screen of paper held vertical, and enter a whole other century of life. If I could I'd jump into the warm ocean and swim until I disappeared like a cartoon dot on the horizon. Once, years ago in a warehouse along the hudson river I wrote on an abandoned wall about a man who flew a single-prop airplane out over the ocean until it ran out of gas and I envied that man so much it hurt. That was years and years ago so does that mean up until now I have been living on borrowed time? Should I count backwards like the Mayans so that I never get older? Will the moon in the sky listen to my whispers as I count away?" Featured passage and "Something from Sleep" (1987-88) are reproduced from Aperture's expanded and redesigned new edition of Wojnarowicz' seminal Brush Fires in the Social Landscape. continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/17/2016

'David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape' with Vince Aletti, Andrew Durbin, Karen Finley, John Kelly, Carlo McCormick, & Stewart Uoo

'David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape' with Vince Aletti, Andrew Durbin, Karen Finley, John Kelly, Carlo McCormick, & Stewart Uoo

Wednesday, April 20 at 7PM ARTBOOK & SWISS INSTITUTE invite you to celebrate the twentieth-anniversary edition of Aperture's David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape. Please join us for an evening of artists, writers and friends covering selected texts by Wojnarowicz - including Carlo McCormick, Vince Aletti, Karen Finley, John Kelly, Andrew Durbin, and Stewart Uoo. Organized by Melissa Harris.
continue to blog


DAVID WOJNAROWICZ MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

David Wojnarowicz: Dear Jean Pierre

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ: DEAR JEAN PIERRE

Primary Information

ISBN: 9781737797951
USD $40.00
| CAN $56

Pub Date: 9/19/2023
Active | In stock


Memories That Smell Like Gasoline

MEMORIES THAT SMELL LIKE GASOLINE

Artspace Books

ISBN: 9780963109507
USD $15.00
| CAN $21.5 UK £ 13.5

Pub Date: 9/2/1992
Active | Out of stock