{"product_id":"pranks-paperback","title":"Pranks! - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eV. Vale\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor in Chief), \u003cb\u003eJohn Waters\u003c\/b\u003e (Interviewee), \u003cb\u003eKaren Finley\u003c\/b\u003e (Interviewee)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOver forty interviews and essays with leading cultural icons who have unique ways of critiquing \"the system\" with humor and ingenuity.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDazzling deceptions and provocative put-ons from some of the most outrageous artists and personalities\u003c\/b\u003e. Spontaneous, improvised craziness from the Underground in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and points in between. From artists, Bruce Conner and Mark Pauline to radical organizer\/writer, Abbie Hoffman, to performance artists Karen Finley and Harry Kipper (and the list goes on) -- the interviewees each have a quirky and distinctive way of commenting on life. Here are an exhaustive number of anecdotes and philosophies, heavily illustrated with photographs and clippings from their travails.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA prank is a trick, a mischievous act, and a ludicrous act. \u003c\/b\u003eAlthough not regarded as poetic or artistic acts, pranks constitute an art form and genre. In \u003ci\u003ePranks!\u003c\/i\u003e, classic pranksters such as Monte Cazazza, Jello Biafra, Joe Coleman, Henry Rollins, John Waters and Henry Rollins challenge the sovereign authority of words, images and behavioral convention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDazzling deceptions and provocative put-ons from some of the \u003cbr\u003emost outrageous artists and personalities living today.\u003cbr\u003eSpontaneous, improvised craziness from the Underground in\u003cbr\u003eNew York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and points in between.\u003cbr\u003eThis book opens up a whole new territory of fun and pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eV. Vale \u003c\/b\u003eis a documentarian who champions underground art-world figures. He has worked with subjects such as J.G. Ballard, W.S. Burroughs, and Mark Pauline, as well as early punk rockers, tattoo artists, \u003ci\u003eIncredibly Strange\u003c\/i\u003e musicians and filmmakers, and many other non-commercial, on-the-edge artists. Vale has contributed to countless literary undertakings, films, and events, and has published over 40 books with RE\/Search and Search \u0026amp; Destroy, his imprints. Vale has documented underground culture and the characters that inhabit it for almost 50 years.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Waters\u003c\/b\u003e is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, visual artist, prankster, comedian, and cultural icon. He first became famous in the 1970s for his transgressive and audacious cult films, including \u003ci\u003ePink Flamingos, Female Trouble, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMultiple Maniacs. \u003c\/i\u003eThese films were banned in some countries. Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs dubbed Waters the \"Pope of Trash\". \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKaren Finley\u003c\/b\u003e is an American performance artist, musician, poet, and educator. Her performance art, recordings, and books are used as forms of activism. Her work frequently uses nudity and profanity. Finley incorporates depictions of sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement in her work. The case, National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998), argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, was decided against Finley and the other artists. She is a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Carlo McCormick\u003c\/b\u003e is an American culture critic and curator. McCormick was Senior Editor of \u003ci\u003ePaper\u003c\/i\u003e and he is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists. He lectures and teaches extensively at universities and colleges around the United States on popular culture and art. His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eEffects: Magazine for New Art Theory, Aperture, Art in America, ArtNews, Artforum, Camera Austria, High Times, Spin, Tokion, Vice \u003c\/i\u003eand other magazines. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Pauline\u003c\/b\u003e is the founder of San Francisco-based Survival Research Laboratories (since 1979). Along with partners Matt Heckert and Eric Werner, he designs and manufactures machines of legendary destructiveness and horror. Sometimes SRL integrates found animal corpses into their menacing mechanical metaphors. Their city-block long shows have been documented on several videos as well as 16mm, and generaly feature newly-invented mayhem-marauders engaged in incendiary combat of mythic dimension against the backdrop of an amazing apocalyptic set.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMar McCloud\u003c\/b\u003e is a post-psychedelic sculptor whose energetic work, \u003cbr\u003e like his conversation, is by turns bright, zany, erotic, eccentric and \u003cbr\u003erich in perverse anecdotal detailing. Currently he is curating a show of\u003cbr\u003e \"LSD Art,\" researching art, music and literature of the sixties, \u003cbr\u003eworking and teaching at Santa Clara University, all the while \u003cbr\u003emaintaining his weirdly dazzling gallery\/salon through whose portals \u003cbr\u003epass the most interesting visitors to San Francisco. Mark McCloud grew \u003cbr\u003eup in boarding schools where pranks functioned not only as initiation \u003cbr\u003erites but also as tests of character and flexibility. Here he \u003cbr\u003erecapitulates a brief history of pranks both traditional and \u003cbr\u003econtemporary.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGerald V. Casale, DEVO member\u003c\/b\u003e, a highly articulate conceptualist\u003cbr\u003e and media critic in his own right, is a founding member of the \u003cbr\u003eband Devo, which produced many albums and videos. He's full of ideas for\u003cbr\u003e future film projects, effortlessly spinning off scenarios, mixing in \u003cbr\u003eanecdotes and analogies, all the while engaged in a running complex \u003cbr\u003ecritique of society's deficiencies. In this interview he expounded on \u003cbr\u003ethe philosophy and principles of pranks.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1957, \u003cb\u003eBruce Conner\u003c\/b\u003e moved from Kansas to San Francisco just in \u003cbr\u003etime for the Beat Generation art\/poetry scene, where he became a \u003cbr\u003ewell-known artist and filmmaker in the company of notables such as \u003cbr\u003eDennis Hopper, Michael McClure and others. Subsequently he lived through\u003cbr\u003e the Hippie and Punk undergrounds as an active participant, all the \u003cbr\u003ewhile creating a huge body of work ranging from sculptures, collages, \u003cbr\u003ephotograms, etchings and assemblages to films and photographs. Some of \u003cbr\u003ethe best documentary photos taken of the early punk rock scene in S.F. \u003cbr\u003eare his. He also ran for Mayor of San Francisco--a prank as he saw it. \u003cbr\u003eConner's pioneering 1958 montage film, \u003ci\u003eA Movie, \u003c\/i\u003e amazed viewers \u003cbr\u003ewhen it was first shown. Using only found footage, he juxtaposed cowboy \u003cbr\u003eand Indians with tanks; catastrophes (including a spectacular bridge \u003cbr\u003efailure) with feats of daring--some laughs, however, being caused by \u003cbr\u003edeath or seriously accident. He also made a film on the JFK \u003cbr\u003eassassination titled \u003ci\u003eReport\u003c\/i\u003e, which angered most reviewers. All of\u003cbr\u003e his films are eccentric and humorous in some way; that could be said of\u003cbr\u003e almost all his art.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 260\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.61 x 10 x 8 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 11, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45572481613959,"sku":"9781889307459","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/i_oeSX4UIX9781889307459.webp?v=1787136615","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/pranks-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}