Richard Hell / Josh Smith — Disgusting — 2010

Disgusting by Richard Hell, with hand-painted endpapers by Josh Smith. New York: 38th Street Publishers, 2010. First edition; trade edition of 300 copies. ISBN 0-9772827-5-9.

The book brings together writings and drawings made by Hell during the preceding seven or eight years — poems, prose, journal entries and images — moving between registers without hierarchy. It was the second Richard Hell title issued by 38th Street Publishers, the artist-run press established by Josh Smith and Todd Amicon. The standard edition was limited to 300 copies, alongside 26 signed and lettered copies in slipcases.

The construction makes each copy materially distinct. The cover was cut from the heavy card poster produced for the DVD rerelease of Ulli Lommel's 1980 film Blank Generation, in which Hell starred. Each poster was divided to produce four different fragments, so no two copies share the same cover image. This example retains partial credits, Hell's enlarged body and sections of the film title — promotional material from one period of his career turned into the support for another.

Josh Smith painted each set of endpapers individually rather than reproducing a single design across the edition. The spreading brown impressions inside this copy are therefore original paintings, not silkscreens, linocuts or woodcuts. MACBA similarly catalogues the publication as containing original paintings by Smith.

Poster becomes cover; painting becomes binding; fragments of Hell's earlier public image return around his later writing. The book begins as an edition of 300 and becomes unique each time it is opened.

Saddle-stitched pamphlet, 24 pages, 13.5 × 21.5 cm. Condition: good; rubbing, creasing and edge wear to covers, softened corners, original Koenig Books price label to rear. Interior well preserved; painted endpapers remain strong.

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