William Burroughs, Keith Haring, Apocalypse George Mulder Fine Arts, 1988, catalog
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Burroughs, William S. , Keith Haring, New York: George Mulder Fine Arts, 1988.
English, limited edition of 250, Very Good softcover, 10 1/4" x 10 1/2", unpaginated.
Very Good square 4to softcover bound in blue paper with white gate-fold wraps, black titling to front, tiled photo portrait of Burroughs and Haring in complementary colors + black. Ten full-color plates with accompanying text, and three photographs of Haring in process painting and printing. Limited edition of 250, unpaginated. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at George Mulder Fine Arts featuring a collaboration between William S. Burroughs and Keith Haring in 1988. The artist and author produced a limited series printed in Amsterdam.
Apocalypse is a picture of full-system collapse, a planet unhinged, a war against the Machine in which Burroughs sees the artist as the last soldier standing. Haring, who had recently been diagnosed with HIV, responded with his singular phrenetic iconography but with a new fury of disjointed body parts, robots, a recurring defaced Mona Lisa, angry religious symbols, and human-animal hybrids. At the time these two queer artists were making this work, a new frightening threat loomed with AIDS. In his last lines, Burroughs says, "The Piper pulled down the sky." Maybe he was referring to Haring himself, doing the impossible, defying death by making art.
Condition: Very Good dust jacket, some mild soiling, bent corners at flap. Book in Very Good + condition, mild wear to spine but tightly bound, clean interior.
Association: This copy acquired from the library of Genesis and Paula P-orridge of Psychic TV and Thee Temple of Psychick Youth, TOPY. Genesis P-orridge was friends with Burroughs and some other figures associated with the cut-up method of deconstructed literature.
A scarce piece of ephemera recording two innovators in a truly explosive work that marked an important moment in the battle against AIDS and the beginning of the LGBTQ rights movement. Part of a recent exhibition at the Walker Art Museum.