Asphyxiating Culture by Jean Dubuffet

A5, 104 pages, Black & White laser printed, Perfect bound, Full Color Softcover, Full colour postcard insert, 2015

Most of you will be familiar with Dubuffet the painter, some might even know Dubuffet the musician, but his achievements as the original "Art Brut" spokesperson is arguably the most essential of all his contributions to this world of images and words, (and words about images and images about words)...and "Asphyxiating Culture" is the beautifully written foundation of all that!

Largely avoiding the tedious "outsider" debate, Jean points out where it all went wrong, and why the concept of "culture" itself is indeed a-s-p-h-y-x-i-a-t-i-n-g the very notions of what makes creation valuable and worthwhile. Whilst his work as an artist (arguably) steered towards those dead-ends that he himself repeatedly raises awareness of, this bit of writing sees him in top form: controversial, witty and equipped with a polemic attitude that would make most people blush in private, this is one of the most significant writings about A-R-T that you'll ever come across, to be filed alongside absolute essentials like "Against Interpretation" and "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (or Reproducibility)". The best thing is, unlike those two, "Asphyxiating Culture" is bloody hilarious!
Ha!

The text is a reprint of the original 1988 translation by Carol Volk and comes with 3 b/w reproductions of great (and anonymus) artworks as opposed to Dubuffet's own work, which was used for the original and completely out of print edition