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| Sample pamphlets for publishers |
It's so baffling that there isn't more uptake for the groundbreaking projects I keep assaulting publishers and funding bodies with. The
post-electronic music textbook... the story of J.B. Schalkenbach's electro-musical breakthroughs, etc. all remain untouched, although journals have accepted condensed sections over the years. Obviously I cannot self-publish or fund anything myself as I remain completely impoverished - the same fifteen-year-long state of affairs which initiated this whole post-electronic endeavour and the attendant '
miraculous agitations'. Last year this blog promised an imminent release of a study into
outlying literature, not entirely in vain. Throughout 2025, the distribution of 4- or 8-page enticer brochures reached a fever pitch. These samplers had urgent appeals prominently placed on the covers. One publisher remarked that a project surveying thwarted, or so-called "off-the-wall" literature would benefit from "a cool head" (implying mine is too hot and agitated?). It's impossible to remain neutral when you have first-hand experience of the ambition-scuppering thwarting agencies! There's some encouragement, however, to be gained from engaging with the submerged/thwarted books and media of past, which are exemplars of
visionarily persevering spirits (except maybe in the cases where creators deliberately court obscurity). Although like all energy, motivation can be damped by lack of response. Mine is rapidly going that way, especially in view of my blogs not even appearing on Google searches any more (maybe the posts about my Radionics Radio project went too close to promoting unorthodox medicine?). I still hope the project can be published at some point. In the future I believe outlying media will be of extreme interest for having escaped uptake into AI deep-learning, and also for it interpreting reality in singular ways.
As a book designer, this year I worked on '
To Farse All Things' which documents the lives and artistic (and culinary) interests of its authors
William English and
Sandra Cross - founders of the Dining Room (1980-1990): a pioneering vegetarian basement restaurant and artistic venue near Borough Market. I was able to insert some 'outliers' into a highly unusual section of the book where accumulated mini-myths capsize the remainder of narrative into an absurdist storybook written by William, clearly funnelling in his own experiences as a rare bookdealer. The richly-illustrated final eighteen pages constitute a tale about a bookdealer named Mildew, specialising in "failed artists' ephemera", and I filled this with examples to instil the same delirium Mildew inhabits: that of ouroboros career trajectories and priceless detritus from unattended showings.
"Failed artist" is a bit severe - I've written and lectured on '
Failed Histories' in the past, but in 2019 decided to reframe these as '
Thwarted Histories' to suggest a fluid, antagonising agency. But Mildew is world-weary and cynical in ways only bookdealers can be, and prefers "failed": by way of biography Mildew says, "I was a failed artist myself (...) I went through the art school sausage machine, churning out unemployable misfits destined for a life of dysfunction." I found that bit chilling.
This is just one distinct part of the book, which acts as a sort of 'event horizon', distilling many of the book's themes into a cathartic dream-like wooze. Other parts of the book rigorously showcase William and Sandra's film work, alongside the works and traces of many friends, fellow-travellers, and collaborators. One section features some of the stranger items from William's vast Kenneth Anger collection. The inventor Captain Maurice Seddon also features prominently. I supplied a foreword which attempts to bridge different timelines, invoking our mutual late friend Hugh de la Cruz who worked as a washer-upper at the Dining Room, and who, in later years, engaged me to help him design a perpetual motion machine in exchange for living rent-free in an empty flat he'd vacated (this never fully came to pass).
'
To Farse All Things' was published to coincide with the recently-concluded exhibition of the same name at Nottingham's
Bonington Gallery, curated by Tom Godfrey. The book remains a crucial resource for a 'lost' part of London's Borough Market history. It can be seen, in some ways, as a follow up to William English's 2019 '
Perfect Binding' (which I also designed and wrote the foreword for). Please consider seeking out and buying these books. Both are published in a strict limited edition of 300.
