BALD EGO NO. 2, Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, eds., 2002

Softcover magazine, offset printed throughout. Bald Ego Publishing, New York, distributed by D.A.P. 6 × 9 in. ISBN 1-56466-114-8. Original cover price $15.00.

Cover reproduces Sarah Charlesworth’s Devil, 2002, from her Neverland series.

Bald Ego occupied an unstable space between art magazine, literary journal and downtown New York social object. Edited by Glenn O’Brien and Max Blagg, its structure deliberately brought together writers, artists and photographers who would not ordinarily occupy the same publication, often pairing contributors at the same page number rather than separating image and text into conventional departments. Adam McEwen and Sarah Charlesworth share p. 54; Gary Indiana and Keith Sonnier p. 126; Glenn O’Brien and Jerry Schatzberg p. 166; Richard Hell and Renate Aller p. 182.

Charlesworth’s cover is particularly appropriate to that editorial logic. Devil belongs to the 2002 Neverland series, in which isolated objects appear against intensely controlled monochrome grounds. Here the image leaves the gallery context and becomes the face of a $15 magazine: reproduced, flattened and put into circulation. The work remains recognisable; its function and placement change.

Inside, distinctions between fiction, poetry, painting and photography remain deliberately loose. Jeff Mermelstein’s photographs of women playing mah jongg appear alongside a text titled Mah Jongg. O’Brien’s fiction Ed and Eddie, described as a work in progress, is paired with photographs by Jerry Schatzberg. Elsewhere Cecily Brown, Larry Clark, Jack Pierson, Mary Gaitskill, Lynne Tillman and Gregory Corso pass through the same compact editorial structure without any strong hierarchy between disciplines.

Contributors: Henry Alcalay, Shawn Mortenson, Robert Hawkins, Emma Forrest, Mary Gaitskill, Muriel Vega, Lynne Tillman, Adam McEwen, Sarah Charlesworth, Nick Tosches, Salvador Fresno, Kate Simon, Alan Platt, Orly Cogan, Andre Martheleur, Max Blagg, Kristin Baker, John Godfrey, Jeff Mermelstein, Gary Indiana, Keith Sonnier, Christopher Hund, Alan Uglow, Marcus Leatherdale, Tim Wright, Burk Uzzle, Glenn O’Brien, Jerry Schatzberg, Richard Hell, Renate Aller, Duncan Hannah, Joe Zucker, Janos Gat, Eva Faye, Cecily Brown, Joe Andoe, Larry Clark, Loan Nguyen, Jack Pierson, Gregory Corso and Chris Selver.

The back cover carries a full-page Tanqueray No. Ten advertisement. In isolation it is entirely conventional. Its interest emerges through what happened with the following issue. When O’Brien and Blagg needed additional advertising revenue for Bald Ego No. 3, Andy Spade proposed a “commercial readymade”: Jack Spade would occupy the masthead itself rather than simply purchasing an advertisement within the magazine.

The two consecutive issues therefore record a small but unusually clear shift in the relationship between publishing and commerce. In No. 2, advertising funds the object. In No. 3, advertising becomes the object.

Read alone, No. 2 is a concentrated record of early-2000s New York art, photography and writing. Read beside No. 3, the otherwise ordinary Tanqueray back cover becomes evidence of the publishing system immediately before its commercial mechanism moved from the rear of the magazine to its identity.

Condition: Good to very good. General rubbing and handling to wrappers, with light surface scuffing, creasing and wear along edges and corners. Minor abrasion and softening to extremities consistent with circulation and age. Spine intact. Interior appears clean and well preserved from the pages inspected.