Item Details
Kill Me.
Toronto: Rumour Publications, 1978. Limited Edition. Original Wraps. The imagery combines stencil text with photographic film 35mm negatives and 2x2” positive transparencies and other obvious paint brush manipulations. The various media form a collage resembling Dadaist and/or Kurt Schwitters constructivist collaged art works. Arguably, this loose assemblage of text and image mimics “artist magazine” concepts, but it also elicits “zine” like qualities because of the raw and grainy reproduced pages. The registration of the recto and verso stencil text is exceptional, in that, the text on the front lines up with the reversed text on the back without the use of contemporary registration. Littered throughout are self-portraits of Paul Robinson in negative and positive photographic forms composed with the text statements that dictate the action of the photograph, [example “Hang Me” text with an image of Robinson hanging from a noose.] The front page is titled “Kill Me” with a small [copied] signature of Paul Robinson on the lower right corner. The final page on the verso reveals a ghostly Xeroxed hand with the publication information, including an ISBN number, which is currently non-existent (ISBN 0-88907-013-X).
Quite an esoteric piece, there is little information known about this publication, other than the artist, Paul Robinson and his Toronto punk band, the Diodes. Paul Robinson, vocalist for the Diodes, was also an art student, like two of his other band mates, at the Ontario College of Art in 1977. In the book, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-1981, Robinson explains the band was influenced by Andy Warhol’s juxtaposition of music and art, as well as, the glamour rock of David Bowie, T-Rex, and the New York Dolls. The publication does emulate a Velvet Underground drug and art malaise, but also reads like a political narrative in the vein of Crass, ironically also art students at the time in England. Additionally, it can be noted that the title could have been inspired by Richard Hell’s [Television] iconic t-shirt stating “Please Kill Me” in similar stencil typeface. Extremely scarce copies, as no other known copies exist and only one copy is cataloged in OCLC and accessible. Near Fine in Wraps. Eight unbound single leaf pages. The leaves are common stock photocopier grade paper, standard 8.5x11” size, double-sided copied, and several generations of black and white photocopied images and text. Paper has no significant signs of degradation and no visible creases or folds. Item #9025
Price: $1,250.00