Table of Contents008 Introduction: CELLOPHANE, BRICKS, FOG & CINDER / A Life in Material CultureFictions of Art024 INTRODUCTION028 THE SUBJECTIVE FOG / for Julian Hoeber038 THE COLLECTOR / Fred Tomaselli048 AN ALMOST PERFECT DAY / Letter to Bonn054 RECIPROCITY OF ARTIFACTS: A DOMESTIC / Rachel Harrison058 TRAVELER HOME / Martin & Munoz068 THE BILLBOARD MEN / Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel080 IMMACULATE KILLS / Alexis Rockman084 STATIONS OF THE RELOCATED WITNESS / Gregory Crewdson102 MISSING PERSONS: AN HOMAGE TO PERRY HOBERMAN108 X, CURATOR / David Maisel120 CELLOPHANE BRICKS: A FUGUE FOR MEMORY LOST / Nan Goldin130 JIM SHAW KILLSGraffiti and Comics142 INTRODUCTION148 ONE-TRACK MIND: ON PHIL COPPOLA150 COVER THE CITY: GRAFFITI GRAPHOMANIA, OR, THE FLÂNEUR WITH TOURETTE’S / KEO, PRAY & Katie Merz162 CRUNCH ROLLS / Introduction to Mascots & Mugs: The Characters and Cartoons of Subway Graffiti166 THE ORGY OF THE REAL / Todd James172 A FURTIVE EXCHANGE / Chester Brown178 BLACK KRYPTONITE / A Script for Pettibon188 20TH CENTURY VOMIT / Collaboration with Julia JacquetteBook196 INTRODUCTION206 OBJECTIFIED BOOKS / Alexander Munn, Cynthia Winings, Charles Child & Me222 THE RICHARD PRINCE STORIES230 FIVE RUN-INS WITH ROSALYN DREXLER246 GOD IN A SPRAY CAN / Robert Jimenez’s Ubik252 SYLVIE SELIG256 NOW IT CAN BE TOLD / For Tom ClarkEcstasy262 INTRODUCTION266 ANDY MIRRORBALL (WARHOL)272 TERMITE FOOTPRINTS / On Manny Farber’s Art Writing286 A VOYAGE AROUND MIRELLA BENTIVOGLIO’S STONE TYPEWRITER290 OVERHEARD AT THE INSTALLATION / For Charles Sheeler’s “Suspended Power”299 THE SLEEVE SHOULD BE ILLEGAL For Hans Holbein theYounger’s “SirThomas More”302 SEARCHING FOR UBLAND A Voyage to the Edges of My Disney HyperartifactAt Home326 INTRODUCTION330 VINYL CIRCLE, ON MY WALL / Chad Gerth334 FACES OF JEANNE AND TOM / On Living With a Forgotten Painter’s Masterpiece / Jeanne Redpath344 THE SKIN OF REALITY / A Studio Visit with Kari Gatzke350 JOYCEAN SLICES / Emily Joyce354 ALL MY CHALDRONS366 THE EASEL OF THE UNSEEN / Mark Johnson374 HAZEL378 COFFEEHEAD AND THE DECAYERS / Life in a Charles Long Sculpture Zone392 MY FATHER HAS STARTED A PAINTING402 ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF MY FATHER408 CREDITS

Combining mind-bending intellectual meditations with a visceral delight in his subject, Lethem’s electric prose animates the proceedings. The result is a transfixing look at what it means to make, and admire, art.

Praise for Jonathan Lethem:“Lethem is one of our most perceptive cultural critics, conversant in both the high and low realms, his insights buffeted by his descriptive imagination.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review“A writer gifted at playing with genre forms and riffing on popular culture.”—USA Today“The expected and welcome pleasures of reading Lethem: his intellect, dialogue and wry humor . . . so much of his work is inventive, entertaining and superbly written.”—New York Times Book Review“He remains . . . a literary patron saint: the Brooklyn boy who did us proud by immortalizing our borough in contemporary fiction.”—Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic“Jonathan Lethem is a verbal performance artist.”—Boston Globe“I love and admire the way Lethem’s always pushing at the edges of the form. He’s so in command of the material, both of the subject and the language, that it sometimes feels as if he’s improvising on it, or even floating free of it completely, the way a jazz musician might. His wonderfully corrosive humor is underpinned by a strange, mixed sense of outrage and tenderness.”—Rupert Thomson, author of The Book of Revelation and Dartmouth Park“A writer of abundant literary gifts who applies them with unapologetic enthusiasm.”—The Telegraph“Lethem is as sharp a critic as he is a novelist.—Austin American-Statesman“The quality of Lethem’s prose and the exuberance of his imagination are reasons enough to read him . . . When it comes to style, Lethem has few equals.”—Miami Herald“Lethem writes knowingly and brilliantly about weird, off-the-grid, wayward America.”—Dana Spiotta“One of his generation’s finest writers.”—The Maine Edge