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.

ART THAT KILLS is illustrated on every page with rare, deviant, disturbing, and often previously unpublished photos, drawings, letters and manifestos.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

GEORGE PETROS

From ’84 through ’94 I put out EXIT Magazine. From ’90 through ’00 I edited and art-directed Seconds Magazine. From ’00 through ’05 I was a contributing editor of Juxtapoz and the senior editor of Propaganda. My work appeared on DEVO album covers and in Thrasher, Paper, Screw, Apocalypse Culture 2 and Needles Ink. I edited Steven Blush's American Hardcore on Feral House and Les Barany's Carnivora on Barany Books. I compiled and produced Cleopatra Records’ Tampa Goth/Industrial comp Black Sunshine. My books are Exploding Hearts Exploding Stars (Norman Gosney Publications), The EXIT Collection (Tacit), .45 Dangerous Minds: The Most Intense Interviews from Seconds Magazine (with Steven Blush) (Creation), and Art That Kills: A Panoramic Portrait Of Aesthetic Terrorism 1984-2001 (Creation).