Andy Warhol Books from the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room
ON VIEW NOW
Andy Warhol left a vast body of work that spread from commercial art and silkscreen prints into films, happenings, fashion… and also books. Some of these books were more critically successful than others, but all of them offered a fresh and even subversive vision of what the medium of a book could be.
Perhaps the most well-known of Warhol’s books, Index (also known colloquially as ‘the Andy Warhol pop-up book’) features high-contrast black and white photographs and experimental pop-up features of the superstars and factory lifestyle. Much harder to find now is Screen Test, which pairs excerpts from Gerard Malanga’s daily poetry diary with stills from the early Warhol films. a, A novel is Warhol’s take on the novel: haphazard transcripts of a tape recording, done over a few speed-fueled days in the life of Factory superstar Ondine. And as Warhol moved into the Disco era with a camera always in hand, he snapped the new celebrity culture at Studio 54 and published Andy Warhol’s Exposures.
A commemorative “Warhol goody box” issued in 1992 deconstructs the concept of “book” further, with a huge catalog of Warhol happenings, products, exhibits and art issued in loose xeroxed pages instead of bound. A mirror silkscreened with Nico’s face, a yellow rubber ball, and a bottle of what appears to be Greek Wine add to the pop cacophony.
This display was curated by Jenkins Library Supervisor Brooke Bailey.
