Joel-Peter Witkin – God’s of Earth and Heaven

Hermaphrodites, malformed bodies, Siamese twins, corpses, fetuses, cut-off heads, and self-torturers.
Witkin’s compositions go far beyond conventional “freak show” tableaux to achieve a sinister and dignified beauty, and he includes numerous art-historical references that add context and acerbic wit.

This exquisitely produced collection of black-and-white photographs will take you, as Guy Blaisdell writes in an essay at the end of the book, into “a human afterworld … one that comes before or after the death of this world–a place where the spirits of the dead live on by sitting as works of art for their portraits, descending into our moment and returning always to their identical selves.”

It includes work selected from a ten year period, all of which is reproduced in color to capture the rich and subtle tones of Witkin’s photographs.

The subject matter is as controversial as ever: cadavers, transsexuals, and animals are carefully arranged to create a mythology that could originate only in the mind of this singular artist.

Photographs and drawings by Joel-Peter Witkin.
Essays by Gus Blaisdell and John Yau.
Afterword by Joel-Peter Witkin.
Includes exhibition history and bibliography.

Hardcover
52 duotone plates
124 pages
28 x 33 cm