This book is not about INTENSE SHIT. It’s not about ROCK & ROLL. It’s not about PUSHING THE ENVELOPE, PUSHING BUTTONS, or FUCKING SHIT UP. It’s not about FREEDOM OF SPEECH. It’s not about CONFRONTATION or SHOCK. It’s about ART THAT KILLS.

–GEORGE PETROS

Art That Kills examines the point where art meets crime. The book documents a diabolical era, 1984-2001. It chronicles the evolution of a new aesthetic movement, a terrifying fringe of Underground Art where enlightenment and depravity combined. Murder, rape, torture, pedophilia, cannibalism, drugs, sedition, racism and blasphemy mixed with literature, history, politics, news, movies, TV, punk rock, philosophy and science. The book profiles a pantheon of dissidents and deviants, presents excerpts from their work, re-lives their crimes, and attempts to analyze an elusive era.

The scene described herein is essentially the “second generation” of American Underground Art (the “first generation” ran from ’66 through the 70s). All varieties of taboos and criminal advocacy found confluence, beyond “confrontation” or “shock.” Pure sadism drove it. Sexual psychosis flavored it. Frustration with politics, big business and mass entertainment fueled it.

The artists, from a cross-section of American life, ranged from the abused to the enlightened, from successes to also-rans. Some basked in the limelight; some barely acknowledged their creativity. They all wanted to hurt others in profound ways. Some have succeeded; one presides over an aesthetic empire, one is the world’s biggest rock star, one sits on Death Row, one is a transsexual, others languish in prison. Some are dead. Prosecution, censorship and banishment hounded them all, regardless of rank.

320 pages in length, Art That Kills is illustrated on every page with rare, deviant, disturbing, and often previously unpublished photos, drawings, letters and manifestos.

Featuring:

JOHN AES-NIHIL GG ALLIN FRED BERGER NICK BOUGAS

SHANE BUGBEE JOE COLEMAN DEATH IN JUNE MIKE DIANA

PETER H GILMORE JIM GOAD JONATHAN HAYNES

STEPHEN KASNER RICHARD KERN ANTON LAVEY

STANTON LAVEY SONDRA LONDON LYDIA LUNCH

MARILYN MANSON JAMES MASON MICHAEL MOYNIHAN

ADAM PARFREY

GENESIS P-ORRIDGE SHAUN PARTRIDGE BOYD RICE

JOHATHAN SHAW

PETER SOTOS ROBERT N TAYLOR JG THIRLWELL

and many other iconoclastic artists, publishers, magazines and movements

 

Introduction by Carlo McCormick

 

 

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